UPPER WEST SIDE — The death of an 82-year-old designer who was brutally mugged in broad daylight on the Upper West Side has been ruled a homicide, a spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's office said Monday.
Gerald Abramovitz, a designer whose work is featured in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection, died June 16, three weeks after he was attacked and robbed in the entryway of a brownstone on tree-lined West 89th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.
His killer still hasn't been found.
Autopsy results showed Abramovitz died from a "subdural hematoma" — or bleeding in the brain — caused by blunt impact to the head, a spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's office said.
Abramovitz was ringing the buzzer to a friend's West 89th Street apartment around 5:20 p.m. May 25 when he was hit on the back of the head, police said. The mugger then emptied his victim's pockets and left him bloodied and sprawled on the floor of the brownstone's entryway.
Abramovitz was treated at the Mount Sinai Medical Center emergency room that day, then walked home to his apartment in an assisted living facility on Fifth Avenue, according to his friend, Gene Koretz.
Two days later, Abramovitz became weak and dizzy and returned to Mount Sinai. A CT scan revealed that he was suffering from a massive brain hemorrhage, Koretz said. Emergency surgery to stop the bleeding wasn't successful, and Abramovitz stayed on life support until he succumbed to his injuries on June 16.
Koretz believes the respected designer would still be alive if doctors had given him a CT scan right after the attack and discovered he was suffering from a massive brain hemorrhage.
The hemorrhage wasn't discovered until two days later, and by then, it was too late, said Koretz, a longtime friend who was also Abramovitz's medical proxy.
"Presumably, if they had been able to stop the bleeding, he might have lived," Koretz said.
Koretz says he wants an investigation into Abramovitz's medical treatment in the emergency room at Mount Sinai.
Mount Sinai has declined to comment on the case or confirm whether Abramovitz was a patient, because of confidentiality laws.
Police are still investigating the mugging. No arrests have been made, a police spokesman said.
