Posted Oct 10, 2014, 6:56 PM
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Khurram Parvaz
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: NEW YORK
Posts: 2,424
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Noisy construction site is scaring off my patients: gynecologist
NY Post
Quote:
A prominent Central Park South gynecologist says the constant “ear-piercingly loud” noise and rumblings from the construction of a skyscraper next door has patients running right out of the exam room.
Dr. Samuel Rafalin went to court Thursday asking a Manhattan judge to save his practice — and his patients — at the expense of a $1.5 billion luxury condominium project owned by one of the city’s largest developers, Vornado.
The OB-GYN recalled one patient who was on the exam table when she said, “This is crazy. I’ve got to get out of here.” The woman threw on her clothes and ran out. All he could do, the doctor said, was apologize and say, “The noise is out of my control.”
“It’s a sensitive environment. You’re going to the doctor, and we manage to talk, but we’re both raising our voices. It’s like having a subway train going next to you all day,” he told The Post.
On the stand Thursday, Rafalin told the judge, “Defendants have placed my patients and their unborn children at a real risk of serious bodily harm, as the scope of my practice involves examining pregnant patients using sharp medical tools that require pinpoint accuracy, stability and control.”
The medical office shakes so violently that framed pictures have fallen off the walls. Staff go home with headaches, and patients have canceled appointments, said the Lenox Hill Hospital-affiliated physician.
The wall of Rafalin’s ground-floor medical suite faces the construction pit where a Robert A.M. Stern-designed 920-foot tower housing $90 million penthouses will rise.
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Judge Geoffrey Wright let the doctor play a recording of the jarring noise at the court hearing. The 78-decibel throbbing, grinding, pounding and clanking sounds left the judge wincing on the bench.
“Not quite Grand Funk Railroad,” Wright quipped.
Rafalin’s attorney, Steven Sladkus, pleaded, “Their rights can’t trump us! He can certify that his business is going down the toilet.”
“One of the most troubling consequences . . . is that, on several occasions, I have had to advise my patients of poor test results, negative prognoses and malformations of fetuses requiring termination of pregnancy — all while the unrelenting noises and vibration continue,” the doctor said in court papers.
Rafalin is asking the judge to halt all construction. Otherwise he seeks $2 million in damages.
Vornado’s attorney, Deborah Riegel, said the request should be shot down. “Development in this city is a money maker,” Riegel said, noting that delaying the project for a year would cost Vornado $80 million.
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