Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Man Not Paralyzed After 9-Story Fall Onto Hell's Kitchen Garbage Pile

By DNAinfo Staff on January 6, 2011 11:21am

Piles of black garbage bags were a common site around the city over the weekend because garbage pick up was delayed by the holiday blizzard.
Piles of black garbage bags were a common site around the city over the weekend because garbage pick up was delayed by the holiday blizzard.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Della Hasselle

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Family members of a man who fell nine stories and landed on a pile of uncollected garbage say he was not paralyzed as a result of Sunday's suicide attempt.

Vangelis Kapatos's life was saved by a pile of trash on Jan. 2 when the 26-year-old landed on the garbage instead of the sidewalk after jumping out of his apartment window in a suicide attempt.

The man's aunt, Katharina Capatos, told the New York Daily News Wednesday that, despite suffering a spinal cord injury, Kapatos was not paralyzed from the nine-story fall on Sunday.

"His mouth is full of tubes. He couldn't speak," Capatos told the News. "I told him, 'Don't get upset. You will heal fast.' I know from his eyes he understood."

Garbage pickup resumed Monday, one week after a blizzard dumped 20 inches of snow on Manhattan. A pile of collected trash saved Vangelis Kapatos's life Jan. 2.
Garbage pickup resumed Monday, one week after a blizzard dumped 20 inches of snow on Manhattan. A pile of collected trash saved Vangelis Kapatos's life Jan. 2.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Della Hasselle

Kapatos's father lives in a nursing home and the young man was reportedly upset over being evicted from his rent-stabilized apartment, the News reported.