Man who fell 30 feet with woman finally back at work

On June 1, Robert E. Smith Jr. had his seventh operation in 14 months, since he fell off a roof with a suicidal woman at a care facility in Allentown.

Muscle tissue was moved from his left thigh to strengthen his left hand - the arm that shattered as he used it to brace his fall onto an asphalt driveway.

Only one operation left, he hopes: a nerve transfer to restore lost feeling in the hand.

"I was very lucky. God was with me that day," he said, counting among his blessings: "no spinal injuries, no head injuries."

If he had a second chance, Smith, an Allentown school board member then and now, said he'd probably do the same thing again.

The case became national news in early April 2010, not just because of the double descent, but because Smith, according his uncle, deliberately repositioned himself in midair to land under the woman and spare her from harm.

She walked away.

As Smith was driven off in an ambulance, he recalls wondering where his left hand was because he couldn't feel it, and asking if he was going to die.

"I was talking. I was conscious the whole time," he said.

"If this is it, let me know because I have to talk to my wife," he told the crew.

He'd live, they said, but didn't talk about his injuries.

Bone was sticking out, he was later told.

Broke seven ribs, cracked up his right arm, too. But no skull or leg fractures, Smith said.

On April 5, he was working as an attendant at Mount Trexler Manor when a 20-year-old female patient climbed out a fire escape and headed toward the roof of the three-story building.

Smith was among the first to see the woman, whom he knew well. "She used to come down and play music, and it really relaxed her," he said.

But that April day, "she was zoned out," he said. "She was just saying, 'Stay away from. Stay away from me.' "

"I had a good relationship with her her. I really thought I could stop this."

When she headed toward the ledge, he went out to her, and when she sat down on the edge, he did, too.

"I grabbed the girl, and the girl grabbed me, and I pulled her toward me," he said. ". . . I think she pulled me and that's when we went over."

What happened next wasn't like some slo-mo Hollywood movie scene.

"This part happened really quick - it was like bang, bang, bang," he said.

He tried to hold her with his right arm, thinking two bodies together would have a better chance - and if he got underneath, "she'd bounce off."

"I was trying to make sure her head didn't hit at all," he said.

"She's about 200 pounds, maybe a little bit more. She landed right on top of me," he said.

"I know she said, 'Sorry,' and ran away," he said.

Good thing he didn't land on grass, he was told, because dirt would have gotten in his wounds.

"It's just amazing how I landed, because my legs were fine," he said.

He suffered three compound fractures in each arm, but the less-mangled right arm recovered more quickly.

"I'm a righty, too, which helps a lot," he said.

His wife, Eva, "wasn't too happy at first," and the youngest of his three children, a teenage daughter, took time to stop being upset.

He and Eva met while he was selling magazines door to door in Wilkes-Barre when they were 18, and now she's a mortgage official - and "a saint," he said.

"She's really become a nurse, nursing me back to health."

He was out of the hospital in a couple of weeks - and even managed to avoid skipping a single school board meeting. In May, seeking another term, he ran in the primary and won - as both a Republican and a Democrat.

More people than he can count expressed good wishes after the accident.

"I got so many cards from people I didn't even know," including lots of students, he said. Kind words were passed along on the street, via Facebook, and at church.

"It was really touching. I thought that was really, really nice. It kept me busy for months writing thank-you cards," he said.

"There is a lot of love in the Lehigh Valley."

His story even made Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader.

Driving is just one of things he still can't do.

"I'm hoping someday I can bowl again," he said.

He still can't sleep through the night, though, and started a new medication to counter side-effects of medications for pain and nerve damage.

On June 5, he finally went back to work at Mount Trexler Manor, as activity and mentor coordinator.

After the accident, the woman in the incident moved on to another facility, he said.

"I often think to myself what if I didn't do anything? What if I just stood there and watched her and she died?" he said.

"I'm glad she's OK. I don't regret anything."