Family says Paul Cady did not jump from Maine Med window

PORTLAND — Police have identified a Maine Medical Center patient who died after falling from a sixth-floor window at the hospital.

Officials say 43-year-old Paul Cady of Hollis fell from the Richards Tower on Tuesday evening.

Hospital spokesman Clay Holtzman told the Portland Press Herald that the sixth floor of the Richards building is a neurology intermediate care unit where patients recover from trauma and neurological procedures.

Cady’s daughter Miranda told CBS 13 that there were lots of questions and concerns about how this could happen. Mostly she wanted people to know this was not a suicide, but the result of a brain injury.

Paul Cady had three children. Miranda said he was in a motorcycle accident March 9, suffered head trauma and was comatose in the intensive care unit. Recently, she said he was making progress, walking and talking.

Miranda says her dad was being monitored by hospital staff, but was apparently left alone long enough to open the window and slip out. She says the brain injury impaired his judgment, and this was a desperate attempt to leave the hospital and get home.

Maine Medical Center declined to answer questions, citing the ongoing investigation, “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.”

A spokesperson for Maine’s Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services says there are regulations when it comes to construction of windows in Maine hospitals, depending on when it was built. They, too, are now investigating the incident.

His family said they didn’t think the windows could be opened on the sixth floor; they are looking for answers about the circumstances and were meeting with a lawyer this afternoon.

Officials with the state Department of Health and Human Services say the fall is being investigated by the Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, which oversees hospitals.