Woman’s fear of turkeys led to injurious fall outside Staten Island hospital, lawsuit alleges

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A gang of turkeys that has infamously claimed an area outside a Staten Island hospital is now at the center of an ongoing civil trial in state Supreme Court, St. George.

The plaintiff in the case, Carmen Pagan, 60, of New Dorp, alleges in a 2019 lawsuit that her fear of the animals, coupled with dangerous conditions outside the building, resulted in serious injury. The alleged incident unfolded on a Thursday morning that June outside Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

The plaintiff, who at the time was an administrative aide at South Richmond High School in Pleasant Plains, stated in court documents and proceedings that she had dropped her husband off at the facility and parked the car. She began walking toward a food truck parked on Seaview Avenue for a cup of coffee, first taking a diagonal path through the parking lot to an underpass near the main entrance, saying she was trying to avoid a flock of the large birds near Mason and Seaview avenues.

She then, after bypassing a crosswalk in the parking lot, came to a narrow section of pavement underneath an overpass at the main entrance of the building. There is another cross walk to a wider concrete path, but she said an occupied vehicle was temporarily blocking it in what’s marked as a “no parking” zone. So instead she continued on the narrow path. That’s when she said her sneaker became caught between an uneven curb and section of cement, causing her to fall.

Her arm, she said, was injured as she tried to catch herself and she banged her head against a support wall in the process; ultimately leading to four surgeries on her right shoulder and leaving her “permanently injured,” according to the civil complaint filed by attorney Robert E. Brown.

Immediately thereafter, she testified that a man and a woman whom she did not know and spoke only Spanish helped her into the emergency room at the hospital where she explained to a nurse what happened.

The filing lists Northwell Health and Staten Island University Hospital as defendants. Northwell owns several hospitals, including SIUH.

Lawyers for the plaintiff allege several factors led to the injuries: An unaddressed turkey problem, uneven pavement where his client was forced to walk and where no signs prevent pedestrians from accessing, and a common occurrence of cars frequently stopped in the “no parking zone.”

The suit points to employers, supervisors and staff of the hospital system who failed to make “adequate, proper repairs to subject sidewalk ... to yield the right of way ... and to observe the defective sidewalk.”

Allegedly unable to lift her arm to perform certain tasks at home and at work — where the plaintiff had been employed by the Department of Education for more than two years — Pagan testified she was left with no option but to resign from the position. She has “not been able to return to work since or about her first surgery on October 9, 2019,” her lawyers contend.

Attorneys for Northwell Health argue there were two marked crosswalks to a pedestrian sidewalk providing a safe path for the woman to reach her destination, both of which she bypassed. And that the portion of concrete where she was injured was clearly not intended for walking. At one point upon cross examination during trial proceedings, when asked why she didn’t ask the driver of the occupied car to move away from the cross walk — or cross in front of or behind the vehicle — she replied she wasn’t thinking.

An engineering consultant for the defense stated that within a “reasonable degree of engineering certainty ... the maintenance codes and standards applicable to such sidewalks and walkways were not applicable to this location.”

In speaking about the surface area itself, “he further opined that this particular curb and curb transition area exists for drainage purposes to control the movement of the flow of water on the adjacent driveway surface,” argued attorney Elizabeth Scoditti with the law firm Wilson Elseron, in responding to the lawsuit on behalf of the hospital system.

Witnesses for the defense also stated that section of pavement was there to prevent cars from making contact with an adjacent wall.

WILD TURKEYS ON STATEN ISLAND

The head groundskeeper at the hospital testified earlier in court proceedings that he passes the wild turkey population daily as he makes his rounds, noting they don’t appear to be afraid of cars and have in the past been unintentionally struck by drivers.

The turkeys are infamous for roaming, defecating and sleeping in the treetops outside the hospital near Seaview and Mason avenues and in surrounding neighborhoods.

For some time, they appeared to be confined to the Mid-Island section of the borough where the hospital is located, before multiplying and migrating to several borough neighborhoods.

Residents have noted what’s appeared to be an uptick in the birds amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic when state and city officials have placed focus elsewhere.

The birds were first noted as a problem in the late 1990s, but the fowl didn’t reach problematic levels until a few years later.

In 1999, a local resident is said to have liberated her nine pet birds at nearby South Beach Psychiatric Center, Advance/SILive.com records show.