Architect Crushed By Debris At Ground Zero Out Of Intensive Care Unit
The architect crushed by seven tons of falling debris at Ground Zero is out of intensive care - leaving his loved ones hopeful he’ll be able to walk again.
“The doctors are saying that it’s still too early to tell, they’re telling us that we should be prepared that he won’t walk again - but I don’t accept that,” Robert Woo’s brother Peter told the Daily News.
Robert Woo, 39, was working in a trailer near the future headquarters of Goldman Sachs when a nylon sling failed, dumping 14,000 pounds of metal tubes onto the trailer from the 25th floor.
Woo was in stable condition Wednesday and scheduled to have more surgery to try to repair his injured spine. Surgeons already have inserted pins in his back to fix the damage.
“We’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best,” Peter Woo said Wednesday. “He has a very strong spirit.”
“They’re doing lots of tests on him - X-rays, MRIs - it’s constant,” he said.
Robert Woo is able to talk, but the pain medication is making him drowsy and dazed.
“He’s a bit better, but he’s still in a lot of pain,” his brother said. “He asks, ‘Why am I here?’ He’s asking for the time and date. He’s asking the same questions that he just asked. It’s the drugs. It confuses him. He still doesn’t know what happened.”
Peter Woo said his brother hasn’t seen his two young sons since the accident. His 2-year-old son Tristan “keeps asking for his father.”
“He’s crying every day. He doesn’t understand,” Peter Woo said. Robert Woo’s other son, Adrian, is just 6 months old.
Peter Woo said the family plans to spend Christmas at St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan in Greenwich Village - and several of Robert’s friends from Toronto, where the family is from, plan to fly to New York next week to visit him.
“We’re taking it one day at a time,” Peter Woo said, adding that his family is grateful for good wishes from concerned New Yorkers. “That’s the best thing I want from people. We really appreciate it.”
Peter said his brother was an avid cyclist and he hopes that will help him recover from his massive injuries.
“He loves biking,” he said. “He would tell us he’s going out for a 30-minute bike ride with his nephew - and then come back three hours later.”
Work on the Goldman Sachs building at 200 Murray St. has resumed - except for crane operations - as forensic engineers from the city Buildings Department continue their probe.
Five violations were issued as a result of the accident, including four to the general contractor on the planned 45-story tower, Tishman Construction Corp.