UES Subway Smash Vic 'Paralyzed,' Felt Safe In Manhattan: Husband

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Emine Ozsoy moved from Istanbul to New York City six years ago to start a new life, and right away she told her husband that she finally felt that "I can finally think for myself."

Back home in Istanbul, her husband, Ferdi Oszoy, explained in a statement, the streets are so narrow that you constantly have to look over you shoulder for cars, and to "just to be aware of your surroundings."

And during that first walk on Manhattan's wide sidewalks together, Ozsoy recalled, "she was like 'Huh, I can actually think or dream for myself while I’m walking on these streets.'"

But those dreams have been radically changed, all because of a random shove by a man in an Upper East Side subway station.

A man, Kamal Semrade, 39, was taken into custody at a Queens shelter Tuesday, according to the Daily News, and charged with attempted murder and assault in the subway assault on Emine.

Prosecutors at his arraignment said that Emine suffered a “cervical spine fracture, broken fingers, a laceration on her scalp and damage to four major blood vessels,” reported the Daily News.

Semrade "grabbed her head with both hands and shoved her with all his force into the moving subway,” Assistant District Attorney Carolyn McGuigan said Wednesday. "The victim hit the train and her face and head, rolled along it and then crashed back to the platform where she was instantly paralyzed."

Emine, her husband said, had even taken a part-time job at a cafe because "she wanted to build a community in NYC, where she could recognize local people’s faces," in addition to her award-winning illustration work.

Her husband says she was on the way to work at the café on Sunday morning, but it wasn't clear which café Emine worked at.

Back in Istanbul, Emine, 35, was a page designer at the Hurriyet Daily News, where she led the design for the front page of the paper for years.

And though the road ahead for Emine will be difficult — she is even still at risk of a heart attack or stroke, her husband said — there could be early signs that she may defy what doctors previously said was a slim chance of regaining movement below the neck.

"In just one day, she challenged that prognosis by moving her arms," an update posted to Emine's GoFundMe reads, which adds that her medical bills have already exceeded $100,000.

"She's a fighter and is already fighting to recover. She will get there, but she needs everyone's help," the post reads.

Ozsoy thanked the NYPD, the doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell — who immediately performed a 12-hour surgery on his wife when she arrived — and also the fellow straphangers who comforted Emine as she lay on the subway platform after her brutal attack.

"They were there to keep her motivated to hang on to life," said Ozoy, "and I really appreciated the New Yorkers who came to her aid in that moment."