According to the Daily News, the worker who was seriously injured during a flash fire at a Columbia-Presbyterian building is "clinging to life." Manuel Culcay suffered burned on 85% of his body; he is in critical condition at Harlem Hospital (which has a burn unit), breathing with the help of a ventilator. On Friday, Culcay, who works for Yonkers-based Acid Waste Management, had been cleaning out a water tank when the vapors of the alcohol cleaning solution ignited when someone turned on a halogen lamp. One of the paramedics who tended to Culcay, Mark Caplan, told the News that he and his partner had just dropped off a patient at Columbia-Presbyterian, "We were done with our shift. I guess we were at the right place at the right time," and added that they were praying for him. more ›

A freaky flash fire in a mechanical room of a building on the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital campus left a maintenance worker with burns over 70 percent of his body this morning. A little before 10 a.m. workers were cleaning a domestic hot water tank in a 22nd-floor room, when, suddenly, there was "a little bit of an explosion and a flash fire," according to an FDNY spokesman. City Room reports that vapors from the cleaning solution were ignited after someone turned on a halogen lamp inside the drained tank. Accidents are not uncommon with halogen bulbs, which can reach temperatures as high as 1000 degrees and easily ignite any combustible material nearby. While they are more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs, some have called for them to be banned; two years ago a rash of fires in Australia prompted one firefighter to call halogens "a bloody nightmare." All three workers injured in today's blaze were rushed to Harlem Hospital. One worker injured his arms and hands when he tried to pull the first man out of the tank, and the third suffered respiratory injuries. more ›

As Ed Koch awaits going under the knife for a heart operation in the next couple days, he has the same old playful, dark, New York sense of humor as ever when talking to reporters at his Columbia-Presbyterian hospital room. The former mayor said to the News, "Whatever God wants, God will have. If He wants me to hang around, I'll hang around. If He wants to have some legal [or political] advice, He'll take me." Koch was going in for routine angioplasty when doctors told him he would have to repair damage to his aortic valve stemming from a heart attack he had in 1999. Koch said he loves Columbia because it's the hospital where "the food is good" and added, "I'm looking at the Hudson - oh, wait a minute, Henry's going by... Henry Hudson. He's waving." more ›

Columbia-NY Presbyterian Hospital, at Broadway & 168th Street, was under lockdown yesterday when a suspect, arrested on stolen property and drug charges and being monitored at the hospital, . The Port Authority police had brought Esteban Guitterez to the hospital on Saturday night and the Columbia Spectator reports that he "was in a bathroom in the Emergency Room area at 11:50 a.m. Sunday, when he reportedly decided to climb into the ceiling of the facility. He subsequently trapped himself inside a wall of the structure." After searching for over an hour, Guitterez, according to the PA police, "was eventually determined to be on the other side of a sheetrock wall, so they knocked down the wall and there he was.” The PA police were joined by the NYPD in the manhunt—one man whose pregnant wife as evacuated said, "[My wife] was very scared, obviously." The Daily News adds that the PA cops who were guarding him "are not expected to be disciplined" more ›

7 Train, by Specmotors.
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Columbia Presbyterian Hospital enjoys one of the best reputations in the country. So, when you hear that a man died of Legionnaire's disease while being treated there, you're perturbed. Especially since the Legionnaire's outbreak was apparently in the hospital's water supply, and the patient had water sprayed into his throat for sleep apnea. Since Legionnaire's can be especially harmful to people who had weak immune systems, having Legionnaire's bacteria in a hospital is very bad. Columbia Presbyterian is now using bottled water while their water pipes are being sterilized, but state health officials are now looking into another Legionnaire's death at Columbia Presbyterian from earlier this year. more ›