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Triumphs, Trials and Tribulations

NY Daily News

By James Rutenberg, Mike Claffey, Rafael A. Olmeda, Owen Moritz and Kimberley Schaye

Suzana Piamenta Survived a "Titanic"-like experience when water poured into the elevator of her Manhattan high-rise. When Suzana Piamenta escaped a fast-flooding elevator that had plunged into the basement of her Manhattan high-rise, she had no idea her nightmare had only just begun.

"Instead of getting better, it just gets worse and worse," she said. "I ask myself every day if I'll be able to live a normal life again, but there's problem after problem."

Piamenta, 22, has a herniated disc that will require surgery. Then there are the psychological problems, like severe claustrophobia, for which she is getting weekly counseling.

Because she is afraid to ride in a elevator, she and her husband, Jacky, moved from their 18th-floor apartment at 241 E. 86th St., where the near-drowning occurred, to a second story unit, also on the upper East Side. She uses the stairs a painful chore because of the back injury, she said.

"She's pretty much a prisoner in her own home," said her attorney, Jonathan Damashek, who has filed a $23 million personal injury suit.

On top of all the medical and psychological problems, Damashek said that the couple's business, New York City Bagels on Second Ave., is suffering because Suzana no longer can work and Jacky spends all his time seeing to her needs. Suzana is hoping that she will be able to turn around her misfortunes in 1999.

"If there was a way I could erase everything from my mind in 1998, I would," she said. "I didn't think it was going to bother me that much, but with the pain, it's a constant reminder of what happened to me."