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Sal Forte, an injured construction worker rescued from a crane above downtown White Plains earlier this month, was wheeled out of Westchester Medical Center Tuesday morning.
Forte said he was performing routine maintenance on the crane when he broke his right leg and injured his left leg. It was not immediately clear how the injury occurred.
The 29-year-old says his colleagues were able to get him to a safe place on the crane and splint his leg.
"The fire department and police department from White Plains came up…and they figured out how to get me off the crane,” he said.
Firefighters used a rope and harness to slowly bring Forte down to the roof of a building.
Dr. Jordan Stumph, associate medical director of rehabilitation medicine at Westchester Medical Center, said Forte had surgery on his tibia bone and was transferred to the hospital’s rehab facility.
"At that time, Sal was still in pretty significant pain and he actually had quite a bit of edema or swelling in both of his lower extremities just based on the injury he had," said Strumph.
Doctors say he made enough progress to be discharged from the hospital. But his road to recovery continues. He will head to outpatient physical therapy to work on putting more weight on his legs.
For now, Forte says he’s looking forward to getting home and sleeping in his own bed.
