PORTLAND, Maine — A father of three who died Tuesday evening after falling six stories from his hospital window was disoriented and trying to go home, according to his daughter.
Paul Cady, 43, of Hollis, died just after 5 p.m. Tuesday as a result of the fall from the sixth floor of the Richards Tower at Maine Medical Center in Portland, officials said.
Cady’s daughter shared with the Bangor Daily News an online fundraising page she had created to help offset the costs of her father’s funeral. Miranda Cady, 20, said her father had been hospitalized since a serious motorcycle accident on March 9.
She wrote that he had made progress since the crash, and had gone from “being in a coma and on a breathing tube to being up, walking and talking.”
“He wanted nothing more in the world to come home with the family but with the extent of his brain injuries he needed more hospital time and rehab before that could happen,” she wrote. “All he could focus on was getting home and due to his state of mind he was willing to try anything to get out of that hospital. He was able to open his hospital window enough to get out. … I would just like to put that this was not an act of suicide but a desperate attempt to be home with the family.”
Hospital spokesman John Porter said in a statement Wednesday that he could not release details about how Cady fell.
“The ongoing police investigation as well as patient privacy issues prevent us from discussing details or general issues related to the circumstances of this incident,” he said. “Our thoughts go out first and foremost to the individual’s family during this very difficult time, as well as our shocked and deeply saddened staff.”
Assistant Portland Police Chief Vernon Malloch said in a Wednesday morning statement that investigators do not believe Cady was a victim of foul play.
Miranda Cady wrote that at the time of the crash, Paul Cady was a single father still raising one of his three children, a three-year-old.
According to Portland television station WCSH 6, the state Department of Health and Human Services has announced the incident is being investigated by the agency that oversees hospitals, the Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, as well.
