The Story of Alcides & Edgar Moreno
I survived falling from a skyscraper! Two brothers, Alcides Moreno & Edgar Moreno, were employed as widow washers in New York City.
On the morning of December 8th, 2001, brothers Alcides & Edgar plunged 47 stories down while working on the Solow Tower, a luxury building located at 265 East 66th Street, just west of Second Avenue.
With such a frightening and terrible incident, one would assume that both individuals would have lost their lives that day….Right!?!……
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Episode Credits
Hosted by Mark Tauriello, Jen Wilson, & Marc Bluestein.
Original episode / story concept by Jen Wilson.
Show Notes by Jen Wilson.
Original episode art by Mark Tauriello.
Audio/Visual production by Marc Bluestein.
Show Notes
Question: What is the nastiest fall you’ve ever taken ?
18 Foot Free Fall at Action Park aka Mountain creek
Falls are actually the SECOND leading cause of death by injury. Each year about 684,000 individuals die from falls globally. (Quote the World Health Organization)
Now out of those 684,000 individuals who die a year from falls, there is ONE who has survived to tell the story.
Alcides and Edgar Moreno were brothers who immigrated from Ecuador to the United States. They were window washers for a company called World Wide Window Cleaning in Manhattan. Their job required them to be suspended high above heavily trafficked streets, dragging squeegees across windows.
On December 7, 2007, the brothers took an elevator to the roof of Solow Tower which was a 47-storey apartment building on the Upper East Side. They stepped onto a 16 by 3 feet wide aluminum scaffolding that weighed 1,250 pounds. This was specifically designed to slowly lower them down the building.
Unfortunately the anchors holding the scaffolding gave out, and both brothers went falling 472 feet. It’s said the fall lasted 6 seconds.
Edgar hit the top of a wood fence and was killed instantly. Part of his body was found elsewhere under the debris of the crushed scaffolding in the alleyway next to the building.
Alcides, however was found alive! Sitting up amongst all the debris and shit breathing and conscious. Paramedics did what is called a “scoop and run” which essentially is an approach where the patient is transported ASAP to the hospital without stabilizing them at the scene. Luckily he was only rushed 4 blocks away to New York Presbyterian.
When he arrived at the hospital, doctors were hesitant and didn’t want to move him from the ER to the OR for fear the slightest bump would kill him. They performed surgery in the ER.
Alcides survived with 2 broken legs, a broken arm, a few broken ribs, and a crushed vertebrae. He also had a swollen brain and a bunch of other ruptured organs. He was given 24 pints of blood and 19 pints of plasma before the l bleeding could be stopped.
He went under 15 surgeries, and was in a coma for about 18 days. His wife and children would come to visit him and sit with him.
Then FINALLY on Christmas Day, Alciedes reached out, and stroked who he thought was his wife’s face, however it was one of the nurses. His wife allegedly snapped at him and said, “You are not supposed to do that. I’m your wife, you touch your wife”. He responded with “What did I do?” and that was the first time he spoke since the accident.
Doctors were AMAZED that he was still alive and called it a “Christmas Miracle”.
Alcides unfortunately is not able to return to work, but did receive a multimillion dollar settlement in his lawsuit against the scaffolding company after the Manhattan court found that the scaffolding had been installed incorrectly. The sum of the money was never revealed, but sources say that it was more than the $2.5 million that Edgar, his deceased brother’s family received.
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