Where Is Celso Heredia? LICH Staff Fear the Worse for Elderly Man that SUNY Dumped

Celso Heredia. Photo: NYPD

A helpless 81-year-old man with dementia "disappeared" from Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn last Wednesday after LICH nurses had spent days trying to prevent his eviction by SUNY Downstate, which is trying to clear the Cobble Hill hospital of patients so it can be sold.

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UPDATE: Heredia has been found. See Brooklyn Eagle story.
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Nurses are frantic that Celso Heredia, with no known family and who does not speak English, is wandering the streets -- or worse.

Several news sources have documented the story so far, including Pix 11, the NY Times and the Brooklyn Eagle.

Here is what is known:

- SUNY Downstate administrators discharged the helpless man from LICH at roughly 11 p.m. Thursday night, and bought him a bus ticket to Florida, where he has no known friends or relatives, scheduled to leave at Friday morning at 7:45 a.m.

- Nurses objected to evicting him with no one to care for him, and caused him to miss his bus.

- Suny Downstate bought him a plane ticket and arranged for a SUNY van to bring him to the airport, still with no one to pick him up at the destination.

- PIX 11 discovered the plan and asked SUNY what the hell were they doing with Heredia.

- SUNY canceled the plane ticket.

- Heredia stayed safely at LICH over the weekend.

- On Wednesday afternoon, as LICH was thrown into chaos by SUNY administrators handing out pink slips (technically administrative leave) to 650 employees, Heredia "disappeared."

- SUNY originally said that, despite scores of new surveillance cameras installed all over the hospital, no video existed of Heredia leaving the hospital.

- PIX 11 discovered the existence of video footage.

- It was discovered that Heredia left through a first floor door that required a security code or card possessed only by SUNY administrators and armed guards, and not by nurses.

- Someone opened this door for Heredia.

- Heredia has not been seen since.
Was he pushed out onto Hicks Street, or smuggled past more than ten police cars that were parked directly outside the door?

- Nurses, who cared for Heredia for more than a month after he was found wandering the BQE in June, are frantic that he will wind up dead.

- SUNY placed from 5 - 7 nurses on unpaid leave for "losing" Heredia, though the nurses are followed around the hospital from room to room by the more than 100 armed guards working for SUNY.

- Police issued a Silver Alert.

- Suspicion grows that SUNY administrators had Heredia dumped somewhere.

- The NYS Attorney General is investigating elder abuse.

If you see Celso Heredia, please don't let him out of your sight, and call 1-800-577-TIPS(8477).


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