The 33-year-old man who was struck by a falling tree branch in Central Park appears to be recovering: Sasha Blair-Goldensohn's mother Gwenda Blair told CityRoom, "He finally started responding when they said, ‘Raise your hand and open your eye.'" She also said to the Daily News, "He's slowly improving. We think that he's going to be okay."
Blair-Goldensohn, a married father of two, had been walking in the park on Wednesday morning when a rotting 100-pound tree branch fell on West Drive near 63rd Street. The branch hit Blair-Goldensohn, and, according to CityRoom, he was left with "a gash in his skull, [damage to] his upper vertebrae and... a partial lung collapse." It turns out that joggers rushed to his aid: Dr. Rajiv Narula told the Post, "I was jogging on the other side of the street when I heard a loud snap, followed by a lady screaming...He was breathing, but unconscious -- and blood was squirting out of the back of his scalp. I looked in his bag and found a pair of jeans, which I used as a compress." He and others stayed with Blair-Goldensohn until the paramedics arrived.
Gwenda Blair said her daughter-in-law is "holding up," and noted her own shock, "His dad died when he was 8 so this was like, 'Oh, my God, this can't be happening again.'" And the Parks Department said it was checking trees, but "It's an impossible task to know the status of every single tree."
Narula is happy to hear Blair-Goldensohn was improving (though he's still under sedation to reduce swelling). And the News adds, "Narula said he diverted from his usual route through the park Wednesday, from his Columbus Circle home to Woolman Rink and back. 'This time, for whatever reason, I just ran a different way," he said. "It was just one of those things.'"
