Yesterday we reported that an elderly man suffered an amputation after falling into the subway tracks at 14th Street and Broadway, and today more upsetting details have emerged. The victim was actually 84-year-old Anatoliy Zilberman, a partially-blind resident of an assisted-living facility on 23rd Street who suffered from Alzheimer's. He lost several toes on his left foot and suffered severe bruising after wandering onto the the 4 train tracks yesterday afternoon.
His assisted-living aide informed police he had told his wife he wanted to go for a walk and then vanished; it's unclear how it was that easy for a partially-blind Alzheimer's patient to just stroll out of his assisted-living facility unnoticed. He then somehow wound up with his walker along the tracks just north of Union Square, and nearly collided with a 4 express train. Zilberman was taken to Bellevue Hospital and was in the operating room last night.
