Man who fell 47 storeys from skyscraper while cleaning windows lived to tell the tale
A man defied all the odds and survived a horror accident that saw him plummet 47 storeys off a building.
Alcides Moreno had been cleaning windows on the morning of 7 December 2007, when the incident occurred.
He was cleaning the windows of a New York-based building alongside his brother Edgar, when the pair - both originally from Ecuador - reached the top of the building.
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But disaster stuck when the cables holding their washing platform 'slipped from their attachment point', according to the United States Department of Labor accident report.
Edgar's side dropped first and he sadly plummeted to his death.
It's believed he'd have reached speeds of almost 120mph before hitting the ground.
Alcides followed shortly after but, miraculously, he survived the ordeal.
Tragically his brother Edgar had landed on a wooden fence and died on impact.
Meanwhile Alcides was found by the emergency services crouched down by a pile of twisted metal while still holding on to the scaffold controls.
Rushed to hospital, Alcides was then placed in an induced coma and was found to have suffered serious injuries to his brain, spinal column, chest and abdomen, and had fractures to his ribs, right arm and both legs.
He had numerous operations, and reportedly had a staggering 24 pints of donated blood infused, BBC News reports.
Dr Herbert Pardes, the then-president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital went on to label Alcides as a 'medical miracle', noting that survival rates from a four-storey building 'is not very good' - never mind a 47-storey building.
Alcides woke up three weeks after the accident with his wife at his bedside.
While his survival has been labelled as extraordinary, Alcides feels differently.
Speaking to Morgan Freeman on The Story Of God, Alcides said: "My brother is a big loss.
"[We were] really, really close."
He echoed similar sentiments to BBC News.
"Losing him was a big deal for me," he explained.
"Edgar lived with me in New Jersey and we shared a lot of things. He worked with me and died working with me.
"I believe I felt melancholic for about three years. That's how long it took me to recover and accept his death. It was like losing a child, because he was younger than me."
Alcides went on to receive a substantial payout after the horrifying accident and he and his family have since relocated to Phoenix, Arizona.
While he's moved over 2,000 miles away from the place of the accident, Alcides' injuries have followed him.
He can no longer run, but Alcides is just thankful he can walk.
Niamh Shackleton