EBENSBURG — Had medical help been summoned, a disabled man could have survived his collapse onto a hallway floor at a Johnstown personal care home, a pathologist testified Monday.
Instead, John Anthony Sr., owner-operator of Moxham Personal Care Home, decided that 47-year-old Gregory Hanks “is going to be OK here for the night,” testified Pamela Patton, another resident.
Anthony, 51, of the 100 block of Berkley Road, Upper Yoder Township, is on trial for felony neglect of a care-dependent person and involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor.
District Attorney Patrick Kiniry and his first assistant, Heath Long, are expected to wrap up the prosecution’s case today.
Defense attorney Jerome Kaharick, who delayed making an opening statement to the jury until after the prosecution rests, hasn’t indicated whether Anthony will take the stand.
Patton found Hanks dead about 7 a.m. Dec. 22, 2006, in the same face-down position she found him the night before at the top of the stairs in the second-floor hallway.
Dr. Waheeb Rizkalla, who performed the autopsy, said Hanks had died of the combined effects of alcohol and prescription drugs, including painkillers and antidepressants. Hanks was taking about 10 kinds of pills for physical and mental ailments and was a heavy drinker, witnesses testified.
Rizkalla estimated Hanks’ time of death at 2 a.m. Dec. 22, plus or minus two hours. Patton said she initially found Hanks collapsed about 9:30 p.m. Dec. 21 at the home at 438 Linden Ave.
“If an ambulance had been called to take Mr. Hanks to the hospital around 9:30 p.m.,” Long asked Rizkalla, “was this a survivable event?”
Without hesitation, the pathologist replied, “Yes.”
Patton testified that Hanks had been out drinking that afternoon and again in the evening with another resident. When Hanks returned home, she said, he appeared to be intoxicated and had a great deal of difficulty getting up the steps to the second floor.
She testified she heard Anthony “coaching Greg” to make it up the steps, saying, “Come on, Greg, go upstairs. Lift your foot.”
At the time, Anthony was watching TV on a recliner in the living room, Patton said. She didn’t see whether Anthony – who was on duty that night – eventually got up to help Hanks.
When Patton went to bed about 10:30 p.m., Hanks still was on the floor in the same position, but she checked him and found a pulse.
She said she didn’t call Anthony again even though she was worried, because Anthony had said Hanks would be fine.
When she got up the next morning and went into the hall, she saw Hanks still on the floor. “His hand was blue and cold and hard. I started to panic and called John.”
When Anthony didn’t come immediately, she ran downstairs to get him.
She said she told him, “I think Greg is dead.” But Anthony checked Hanks and said he thought Hanks was alive because his back felt warm, Patton testified.
When Anthony started to lift Hanks to move him to his bed, Patton said she told him, “John, put him down. If you don’t call an ambulance right now, I am.” At that point, Anthony called 911 for assistance.
Paramedic Patricia Mock of the 7th Ward Ambulance responded to the scene.
“ ‘This happens every day,’” she testified Anthony told her when she arrived. “ ‘Sometimes he passes out. He’s left where he lays. That’s what happened last night.’ ”
But Patton denied Hanks had ever been left on the floor overnight previously. On three other occasions, when other employees were on duty, they called 911 when Hanks had medical problems, she said.
James Zangaglia, retired chief deputy coroner, said as soon has he realized that Hanks had been left on the floor overnight, he knew there would have to be an autopsy and an investigation.
“It’s a personal care home. You take care of them. A man was left laying on the floor all night,” Zangaglia testified.
Local News
Victim could have survived, pathologist testifies at neglect trial
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