US:There was a touch of farce about the moment the power of speech returned to Alcides Moreno. His wife, Rosario, had been at his bedside almost constantly since the window cleaner survived a fall from the 47th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper, communicating with him through touch.
Then one day she saw him reach out and touch one of the nurses.
"You're not supposed to do that! I'm your wife, you touch your wife," she joked, expecting no reply.
"What did I do?" he asked.
"It stunned me," Mrs Moreno recalled, "because I didn't know he could speak."
Those were the first words Mr Moreno had uttered since he became a miracle in flesh and broken bone on December 9th. It was then, at about 10am, that he and his brother Edgar took the lift to the roof of the Solow Tower on the upper east side and stepped on to a platform that can be lowered mechanically by cables attached to the roof of the building. Except on this occasion the system failed and the brothers, with no harnesses and just the platform to cling to, plummeted 500ft.
Edgar died instantly, but Alcides joined that tiny band of people who have fallen from great heights and survived, to the astonishment of their doctors.
By the time he was brought into the New York-Presbyterian hospital one relative said "the only sign that he's alive is that he's breathing". His legs, right arm and wrist were broken in several places, he had a collapsed lung, bleeding on the brain and a shattered vertebra, though he had somehow avoided paralysis.
At first doctors they feared any movement might kill him. So the first operation was carried out with the patient lying in his bed. Nine other operations followed, during which time he was given 24 units of blood - about twice his entire blood capacity.
Mr Moreno faces a long haul of further treatment, including another operation on his spine, to relieve pressure and physical rehabilitation to get him back on his feet.- (Guardian service)