WILLIAMSBURG — A disabled man who broke his pelvis after crashing his $7,000 motorized wheelchair found out that it was stripped for parts while he was hospitalized, according to him and police.
Nearly two weeks after the wreck, Richard Vega, 52, is still recovering in Woodhull Hospital and has no immediate prospects of mobility now that his custom 6-wheel, 24-inch-wide motorized chair was ripped apart.
"Without that chair I couldn't go anywhere, shopping, medical appointments," he said. "I depend on it."
Vega's ordeal began on July 9, when he and his home health aide traveled to Woodhull Hospital to speak to doctors about lingering pain from an earlier fall Vega suffered in the bathroom of his Williamsburg apartment.
He said the hospital staff gave him an X-ray, administered some painkillers and sent him on his way.
But he only made it a few blocks from the hospital, near the intersection of Debevoise and Humboldt streets, when he started to feel woozy and nauseous.
"I'm incoherent, I'm dizzy, my aide's telling me watch for the people, watch for the garbage can, watch for the curb," he said. "Next thing I know, I woke up kissing the street."
Emergency workers were called to the scene and put him onto a stretcher and into an ambulance, he said.
But his wheelchair wouldn't fit, so EMTs left it unattended on the sidewalk, he said. His aide traveled with him to the hospital, he said.
But when an aide went back to the corner to retrieve the wheelchair, the only thing left was the frame, he said.
"There were no batteries, no motor, oh my God they took everything else," Vega said. "They took side wheels off... There was only a frame left."
Jennifer Bender, a spokeswoman for NYC Health and Hospitals declined to comment on the incident citing privacy laws.
Richard's older brother Carlos Vega, 56, who helps care for him, said they were considering legal action against the hospital.
"The hospital gave him that medication and then sent him off on wheelchair," the brother said. "He could have killed himself."
