Man falls 30 feet saving suicidal woman

An Allentown man saved a suicidal woman's life but suffered extensive arm fractures when they fell 30 feet from the roof of a Lehigh Valley personal care facility on Monday.

As they fell, he maneuvered himself under her, so he hit the concrete first, allowing the woman to suffer only injuries so minor she was able to walk away, according to a relative.

Robert E. Smith Jr., an Allentown School Board member, was working as an attendant at Mount Trexler Manor in Coopersburg, when word came a 20-year-old female patient had climbed out onto a fire escape and was headed toward the roof of the three-story building.

"My nephew was the first one to get out there. He was closest to the location," said Thomas Katchisin, recalling the account Smith gave visitors at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.

"He knew the patient. He began to talk to her," said Katchisin, 59, an Edison, N.J., retiree. ". . . She was definitely threatening to jump. . . . She went to go and he lunged forward to try and stop her, and she grabbed onto his clothing and pulled him over with her."

"As Robert tells it, this all took place over the span of a few moments," Katchisin said.

As they fell, "he put himself between her and the ground . . . using himself to break the fall," the uncle said.

"That's the nature of the type of person he is," Katchisin said.

Smith, 48, a married father of three and a grandfather of three, hit facing down, hitting his left arm, then his head and his right arm as he rolled, Katchisin said.

Smith shattered bones in both arms, and gashed his forehead, but suffered no apparent brain or spinal injuries.

The woman, confirmed as suicidal by Saucon Township police, reportedly suffered a fracture or two to a finger and a toe.

With two black, swollen eyes, Smith resembles a prize fighter, Katchisin said.

Initial surgeries cleaned out bone fragments, and plates and screws were inserted, he said.

The surgeon told family members that despite doing thousands of operations, he's never seen anyone who lived after such severe injuries, Katchisin said.

Smith will need "multiple surgeries, so they cannot cast him yet," the uncle said. ". . . It's going to be a slow process. There's only so much they can do at a time."

Months of rehabilitation lie ahead for Smith, who can't be sure he'll regain full use of his arms again, Katchisin said.

A call to Mount Trexler Manor requesting comment was not immediately returned this morning.

Smith served as school board president at times while being a member since 2003, and was once appointed to city council for a year, according to the Allentown Morning Call.