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The family of a hospital security guard on Long Island is pleading for answers and change, after he was beaten by a patient so badly, he’s now on life support.
The wife of 63-year-old Gardy Coriolan spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News.
“My husband gave his entire life to law enforcement and saving people and serving the community,” said the wife of the victim, Sonya Coriolan. “He belonged to someone. He belonged to us.”
The wife and daughters of 63 year old Gardy Coriolan were at his side at Mercy Hospital on Monday night, where he worked for 28 years as a hospital police officer, and where last Wednesday he was attacked.
“He was defending someone else, coming to someone else’s aid, like he often did,” Sonya Coriolan said.
When a patient in the ER became violent, Gardy Coriolan stepped in to protect a doctor, suffering a beating that sent him into cardiac arrest.
“I was told today that he has 90% brain damage, and he will never wake up,” Sonya Coriolan said.
Eduard Lopez, 28, is charged with assault. Coriolan’s family wants him charged with attempted murder, and for anyone else who attacks a hospital officer in New York to face additional consequences.
“I just feel that laws should be passed, that if they’re assaulting these hospital police, that they have some very stiff penalties,” Sonya Coriolan said.
Coriolan retired from the New York City Correction Department, simultaneously working and mentoring officers in hospital and school safety.
He did 20 years on Rikers Island and came out unscathed,” Sonya Coriolan said. He did 16 years with the Uniondale School District. Unscathed.”
But it was at the hospital where his wife says he felt it was the most dangerous.
He was unarmed, usually working with only two others, and sometimes alone.
While the hospital issued a statement saying, in part, “We remain focused on ensuring the well-being and safety of everyone in our Emergency Department,” his family isn’t so sure.
One of his major concerns, and his exact words that he quoted to me and leadership at the hospital, was, ‘the shortage of staff here is going to get someone hurt, or someone is going to die. And now, I’m living that,” Sonya Coriolan said.
The officer’s family says there is video of the brutal attack, which they would like to see.
Lopez is due in court on Tuesday on that second-degree assault charge, which could eventually be upgraded, given the officer’s delicate condition. The investigation is ongoing.
