Superheated steam and scald burns killed a grandmother who fell down an open Midtown manhole, New York City’s medical examiner has found. Donike Gocaj, 56, plunged into the uncovered Con Edison hole on East 52nd Street near Fifth Avenue at around 11:20 p.m. Monday, moments after parking her SUV nearby. Gocaj suffered inhalational thermal injuries and blunt-force trauma to her torso, the examiner found. Her death was ruled an accident, the New York Post reported. Barbara Butcher, former chief of staff at the city’s medical examiner’s office, said: “The steam would have caused her to have scald burns on her skin, but the real cause of injury would be the inhalation.” New York City has a vast underground steam network that provides centralized heating, cooling, and sterilization to thousands of buildings across Manhattan. Forensic pathologist Lee Ann Grossberg said, “That would have been a really painful death.” A witness told how Gocaj screamed, “I’m dying,” as people scrambled to help her.
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