A security guard remains on life support nearly two months after a Long Island hospital patient allegedly attacked the 62-year-old during an overnight shift.
On Wednesday, Eduard Lopez pleaded not guilty to a grand jury indictment charging the man with three counts of felony assault and two county of misdemeanor assault. If convicted, the 28-year-old, of Freeport, faces up to seven years in prison.
Lopez is being represented by a legal aid attorney, who did not provide a comment following Wednesday’s hearing. At one point during the hearing, it appeared that Lopez began to cry.
Sonya Coriolan, the victim’s wife, was at the hearing. She said her husband’s condition has not improved since the Oct. 16 attack at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre.
“There is no change in the status of my husband. We’re still praying for a miracle. He is still hospitalized. He’s still on life-support,” said Coriolan. “I’m not giving up I believe in miracles, I’m just gonna stand beside him and hope and pray that he gets out of this.”
Her husband, Gardy Coriolan, was working the overnight shift when a patient became irate with a doctor after midnight. His family says he tried to help the doctor, and ended up getting assaulted.
“I was told he was hit center mass in the chest. He was hit in the face numerous times and he fell and went into cardiac arrest,” the victim’s wife previously said.
Prosecutors said Lopez punched Coriolan in the face, causing him to fall onto a hospital bed.
“I was notified that he has 90% brain damage and that it’s a possibility he will never wake up,” Sonya said.
Coriolan is a retired New York City correction officer who has worked for nearly three decades at the hospital. His family has urged prosecutors to upgrade the charges, but that hasn’t happened.
“I want attempted murder. This individual should do jail time. I want him to be taken away from his family and put in jail like my husband‘s been taken away from his family,” Sonya said.
Coriolan was always concerned something like this would happen, according to his family, because incidents with patients seemed to be happening more often.
“He talked about the people that were coming into the hospital. They had physical fights with the staff,” said the victim’s daughter, Melanie Adams. “He was constantly intervening and breaking fights up.”
Coriolan’s wife said “his words were exactly that somebody’s gonna get hurt or somebody’s gonna die here.”
In a statement, Mercy Hospital said “the security team responded quickly and safely de-escalated the situation. A short time later, one of our security officers experienced a medical emergency. We remain focused on ensuring the well-being and safety of everyone in our emergency department.”
Bail for Lopez was set at $250,000, which the victim’s wife was pleased with.
“I’m partially satisfied with the fact that they increased the bail. Of course I would’ve liked to see the charges upgraded, but as long as I know that he’s gonna be incarcerated, I’m a little happy about that,” Sonya Coriolan said.
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