Maine’s medical examiner has ruled that the death last month of a Hollis man who fell from the sixth floor of a Portland hospital was accidental.

Paul Cady, 43, was a patient at Maine Medical Center, where he was being treated for brain injuries he suffered in a motorcycle accident. On the night of March 29, Cady either fell or jumped from a window in his room.

Family members have said they do not believe Cady was suicidal, only that he was likely disoriented and trying to get out of the hospital to be with his family.

Cady, of Hollis, had been hospitalized with brain injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident in early March. He had been using a breathing tube and at one point had been put in a medically induced coma, according to a post written by his daughter, Miranda Cady, on the fundraising site Gofundme.

“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,” she wrote.

Mark Belserene, a spokesman for the Maine Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said in an email Wednesday that Cady’s death was accidental and the cause was “extensive blunt impact trauma.”

Belserene would not comment further on the investigation nor about how the medical examiner determined that Cady’s death was accidental.

“The case was investigated thoroughly to determine the cause and manner of death for Mr. Cady,” Belserene wrote in an email. “Our policy is to only release the cause and manner of death upon request by media or curious public.”

The state Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services is still investigating.

In Maine, newly constructed hospital facilities must meet the American Institute of Architects 2006 general guidelines for hospitals, which doesn’t require windows in patient rooms to be operable. However, if windows in patient rooms are able to be opened, “operation of such windows shall be restricted to inhibit possible escape or suicide,” the standards state.

At facilities such as Maine Medical Center, where old buildings are used side-by-side with new construction, those building standards apply only to older structures if renovations were performed after 2009 and the work costs more than $50,000.

The Richards Tower, where Cady fell, was built in 1969, and it was unclear when that section of the hospital was last updated.

The sixth floor of the Richards Tower is a neurology intermediate care unit where patients recover from trauma and neurological procedures.

Maine Medical Center officials have not commented on Cady’s death, citing patient privacy laws.

Copy the Story Link