Doctor injured in NYC home explosion dies

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Doctor injured in NYC home explosion dies


By BRIAN J. HOWARD
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 17, 2006)

NEW YORK ? Dr. Nicholas Bartha may have loved his tony Upper East Side address too much to bear the thought of parting with it.
In the end, however, he lost both his life and the East 62nd Street townhouse he had owned for 30 years.
Bartha, who worked at Mount Vernon Hospital and is suspected of blowing up his home rather than allowing his ex-wife to benefit from its sale, died nearly a week after suffering critical injuries in the blast.
"It was just a terrible ending," said Salvatore Schiliro, spokesman for Mount Vernon Hospital. "Our heartfelt condolences go to his family."
Mary Halston, an administrator at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, confirmed the time of death as 11 p.m. Saturday but declined to disclose the cause of death or whether Bartha had remained in the medically induced coma he'd been in since the July 10 explosion.
Bartha suffered second- and third-degree burns over 35 percent to 40 percent of his body in the gas explosion.
"It is a really sad time for everyone who knew him," said Dr. Emil Nigro, director of emergency services at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, where Bartha worked part time from 1999 to 2004.
"I think it is fair to say that he was quite old-fashioned and had a very strong work ethic," Nigro said, recalling that he and Bartha talked mostly about medicine, politics, his family and his building, which Nigro said was his "pride and joy."
"We didn't have any inkling of any kind of issue like this," Nigro said. Authorities were investigating whether Bartha might have caused the explosion rather than sell the 19th-century townhouse as part of a divorce judgment favoring his ex-wife. The townhouse and land were worth nearly $6.4 million, according to the city's Finance Department. The property was to be sold at auction in October to pay a $4 million judgment against Bartha.
Cordula Bartha told police she received an e-mail from her ex-husband shortly before the explosion warning that she would be "transformed from gold digger to ash and rubbish digger."
"I always told you I will leave the house only if I am dead," the e-mail said.
Investigators have said that someone tampered with a gas line leading into the home's basement, allowing vapors to flow for hours until a spark caused the huge blast. Police were never able to interview Bartha and did not file any charges.
Though reporters were camped out on the sidewalk outside Cordula Bartha's Washington Heights apartment house much of yesterday, she could not be reached for comment.
Bartha also sent a 14-page e-mail to colleagues at Mount Vernon Hospital just before the blast, complaining that his job there was "pure punishment." He railed against dozens of colleagues at the hospital, including his supervisor.
Two resident physicians at Mount Vernon yesterday said they never had any problems working with Bartha.
"He was a good physician," said Dr. Madhu Pataley.
"It's very sad," Dr. Maxim Smirnov said.
Hospital spokesman Schiliro said Bartha's vitriolic e-mail was the sign of a deeply troubled man.
"He had issues with so many people," Schiliro said. "He was mad at everybody and everything. He was just a very angry person."
The physician, who lived and had an office in the four-story landmark, was the lone occupant there during the blast. It leveled the building and left the block covered in bricks, broken glass and splintered wood.
At least 14 other people were injured, including 10 firefighters, authorities said.
Several windows remained boarded in the apartment building next door. A backhoe blocked the sidewalk, and barricades kept people back from the site.
David Jaroslawicz, a lawyer who represents Bartha's neighbors, Niso and Sherry Benbasat and their son Vidal, said a lawsuit filed on their behalf was on hold because of Bartha's death.
The legal action for damage to the Benbasats' sixth-floor co-operative will resume once a representative is appointed by Bartha's estate or by the court, Jaroslawicz said. Meanwhile, his clients are waiting for the fire marshall's OK to re-enter their building.
The blast site drew a steady stream of onlookers who gawked at the gap in the row of expensive apartment houses just off Park Avenue yesterday morning. Dan and Irene Merrins of Freeport, on Long Island, were staying at their son's East Side apartment while he is on vacation. They decided to walk over and see the devastation firsthand.
"Fine if you want to (commit suicide)," Irene Merrins said. "But what about the other people around?"
"He wanted to make a statement," Dan Merrins said. "He certainly did."
Marc Grossman and Sharon Mintz made the location a stop on the Upper East Side walking tour they took yesterday morning. The Washington Heights couple, engaged to be married in a year, live in the same neighborhood as Bartha's ex-wife. "It's weird to see," said Mintz, 25. "You see it in the newspapers. You see it on TV. It's weird to see it in person."


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