By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — St. Vincent’s Medical Center is long gone, but there’s at least one Manhattanite who won’t give up hope that the hospital could be resurrected.
Douglas Esposit stands in front of the shuttered emergency room at West 12th Street and Seventh Avenue four days a week for hours on end with a sign hanging from his neck reading, “Our Community Needs St. Vincent’s.”
“They say miracles can happen,” said 60-year-old Esposit, an Upper West Side resident, on a recent Wednesday. “Well, something hopefully has to happen, because we need a hospital here.”
Even though Esposit doesn’t live in the area that St. Vincent’s served, he feels strongly about the issue of readily available hospital care. He lost his father to an asthma attack in 1982 because he didn’t receive medical care in time.
“In life or death situations, there isn’t enough time to get across to Beth Israel," he said.
Esposit is a respiratory therapist and the president of Breathing Therapy Home Care, which provides oxygen tanks for patients with asthma, heart and lung conditions. He pushes for the St. Vincent's cause in his free time.
On warm days, Esposit can be seen in an airy Hawaiian button-down shirt and light khaki pants. He doesn’t hawk or shout, but waits for locals to approach him to talk about the hospital. He tells those who speak to him that the closure of St. Vincent's isn't just about politics.
“It's about how we treat each other as human beings,” he says, handing over his beverage to a needy New Yorker who has crossed his path.
“You close the doors to that hospital and you close down someone’s life.”
