Miami Zombie Victim Doing Well, Staying Positive

Man who suffered facial attack recovering, doctors say

Doctors treating MacArthur Causeway attack victim Ronald Poppo say he is staying positive and happy despite his horrendous facial injuries.

A fund established by the Jackson Memorial Foundation to help pay for Ronald Poppo’s care has received $15,000 so far. To donate, visit http://www.jmf.org.

BY ELINOR J. BRECHER

EBRECHER@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Ronald Edward Poppo — possibly blind, horrendously disfigured — is a happy man.

So say the doctors treating him at Ryder Trauma Center, who are amazed at his good nature.

“He has not said one thing that’s negative,’’ said Dr. Nicholas Namias, a trauma surgeon and Ryder co-director. “He’s really just sort of living in the moment.”

Doctors talked about their famous patient’s condition on Tuesday for the first time since paramedics brought him to Ryder on May 26 from the MacArthur Causeway, where a crazed, naked man, Rudy Eugene, chewed off at least half of his face.

In a new development in the sensational case, the doctors described two puncture wounds on the left side of Poppo’s chest, where he sustained a broken rib, raising the possibility that the Miami police officer who killed Eugene might also have injured Poppo.

“It could have been an object. It could have been a bullet, but it’s not an issue anymore,’’ Namias said. “It’s nowhere near the worst of his problems.’’

The holes, which have healed over, “seemed to connect,’’ he said. “There was no foreign body left behind.’’

“It could have happened,” said Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police.

Officer Jose Ramirez fired five shots at Eugene, and a source close to the case said that five bullets were recovered from Eugene’s body at the autopsy.

Ramirez “had to take swift action, and bullets have a mind of their own,’’ Aguilar said.

Poppo, who is homeless and an alcoholic, also suffered a short-term brain injury much like a car-crash victim would have sustained. The injury required several CAT scans and likely contributed to Poppo’s initial confusion, Namias said.

Poppo is being treated for an infection unrelated to the facial wounds, Namias added, and is generally in good health.

Poppo’s condition is stable, and doctors said he gave them permission to discuss his case with the media.

“He’s doing well,’’ said Namias, who answered questions alongside Dr. Wrood M. Kassira, the plastic surgeon rebuilding Poppo’s face, and Dr. Jorge Delgado.

They displayed the first officially released photos of Poppo since the incident, and confirmed that unofficial photos taken immediately after the assault are genuine.

In those original photos, Poppo’s face is a bloody pulp, unrecognizable as human. It’s still not known who took them or posted them on the Internet.

“We couldn’t make out what his features were,’’ Kassira said. “Our main objective is to provide [wound] coverage to allow him to recover from the trauma and cope with what’s happened to him.’’

In the new photos, Poppo’s face looks intact from the mustache down. A gauze bandage covers his now-empty left eye socket, and a flap of his own skin protects what’s left of a damaged right eyeball.

Bloody scabs, raw wounds and skin grafts cover the rest of his face. He lost his eyebrows, part of his forehead and right cheek, and his nose.

Full Story  Miami Herald

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/12/2845353/update-on-homeless-man-attacked.html#storylink=cpy

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'Miami Cannibal' Victim was STILL CONSCIOUS during Attack

Victim  was star student at elite New York high school - 

He was STILL conscious during EIGHTEEN-minute attack

• Rudy Eugene, 31, tore into victim's face with his teeth and growled -
• Police believe he may have taken 'bath salts,' a potent new drug -
• Images have been released of Ronald Poppo, 65, recovering in Miami hospital -
• 75 per cent of victim's face chewed off in 'some of the most horrific injuries staff have ever encountered' 
• 
  
• Was still conscious when he was stretchered off to hospital 
• 
  
• Investigators trying to piece together last hours of Eugene's life
• 
  

By RACHEL QUIGLEY

PUBLISHED: 10:13 EST, 30 May 2012 | UPDATED: 15:18 EST, 30 May 2012

The homeless man whose face was eaten off by the 'Miami cannibal' during a horrific, 18-minute attack was a star student at a prestigious New York school before he became a down-and-out.

A yearbook picture of Ronald Poppo was obtained by the New York Daily News, who reported the victim was in the Latin Club and worked in the guidance office at Stuyvesant High School before he became homeless.

According to his long record of petty arrests, he spent the last four decades in Florida and nothing is yet known about how his tragic fall from grace from top student to a life on the streets.

Fall from grace: Ronald Poppo when he was a star student at Stuyvesant High School in New York, left, and as a down-and-out in Florida

It comes on the same day footage of the 65-year-old's dramatic rescue was released which shows he was still conscious and moving his arms after the attack, while Rudy Eugene's body lay next to him.

After paramedics tend to the victim's facial injuries, they carefully place him on a stretcher. 

As they carry him from the walkway where the attack took place to the ambulance, he starts to wave his arms around and has to be strapped down.

The harrowing attack, which has shocked America, took place on Saturday afternoon on the MacArthur Causeway near Miami beach.

Rudy Eugene, 31, originally from Haiti, chewed lumps of flesh from Mr Poppo's face after stripping and beating him.

New footage of the almost 20-minute ordeal was released hours after the first picture emerged of the victim - as well as stomach-churning images of his horrific injuries.

The video shows that a number of cyclists and drivers passed by and did nothing to stop the brutal attack. One driver slows down before driving off, though police say he then called 911.

Rescue: Paramedics tend to the victim, putting him on a stretcher and dressing his gruesome injuries

Still conscious: As he is transported from the walkway to the ambulance, Mr Poppo starts moving his arms around

Restrain: The paramedic tries to stop the victim from moving as they realize the man is still conscious despite his harrowing injuries

As police piece together the last hours of Eugene's life, they believe he attended a Memorial Day weekend beach party before making the three-mile journey home on foot in more than 90F.

Brutal: Rudy Eugene, 31, pictured in an old police mugshot, was shot dead by police in Miami, Florida, following the horrific attack where he ripped pieces of flesh from his victim's face

He took off and scattered his clothes as he walked across the causeway - police later found his drivers license and clothes strewn from the beach to the mainland - before pouncing on the homeless man he found sleeping on the elevated train tracks, according to the Miami Herald.

After he strips and punches his victim, he straddles him before starting to eat his face off. Cars and a number of cyclists passed the two men while the attack took place.

It was almost 20 minutes until officer Jose Rivera shot Eugene shortly after he arrived. He shouted at the 31-year-old to stop but he simply got up and growled and continued eating at the man's face.

Former friends of the dead attacker today spoke of their shock at the brutal assault.

Source:Daily Mail UK
Read more: 9RY2

Global Rumblings: CDC - Blogs - Public Health Matters Blog ...

May 28, 2012

CDC - Blogs - Public Health Matters Blog – Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse · CDC - Blogs - Public Health Matters Blog – Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse: NASA knows some things. 2012 Survival Guide ...

Global Rumblings: Threw His Own Intestines At Cops

23 hours ago

We're not saying that this is a real zombie apocalypse (since zombies are fictional), but come on: there has been a lot of zombie-like behavior in a short period of time. Actually, this is more reminiscent of 28 Days Later, which ...

Global Rumblings: Warning-Graphic, Gruesome Photo "Zombie" Victim

May 30, 2012

Posted by Dee  Labels: 2012, Cannibal, demon possession, end times, Miami, Naked Man Eats Face, Ronald Poppo, Ronald Poppo Miami, Rudy Eugene, video, zombie apocalypse, zombie flesh eater ...

Survive Anything - Disasters - Economy Collapse - Mobs, Etc. PROTECT YOUR FAMILY!

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Warning-Graphic, Gruesome Photo "Zombie" Victim

Ronald Poppo, the pitiful victim of the horrific attack which left most of his face gone and seriously bleeding, is in critical condition here in Miami, at the Trauma Center of Jackson Memorial Hospital. 

Prayers are needed not only for his survival, but for defense against the evil winds blowing around the world in these times, shall I say, in these End Times? 

Eugene Rudy, the attacker and  Ronald Poppo, the victim.

Above picture from South Florida's Sun-Sentinel

Poppo remains in critical condition at the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office is expected to perform an autopsy that will include a toxicology screening to determine whether Eugene really was under the influence of drugs when he went on the attack.

According to public records, Eugene was married from 2005 through 2007 — his divorce from Jenny Ductant was finalized Jan. 7, 2008. Ductant declined an interview request Tuesday afternoon. The divorce case file mentions nothing about children.

During the marriage, Eugene lived in Hollywood.

But as a teenager, he attended John F. Kennedy Middle School andNorth Miami Beach High School, Forte said. He was not one to get into serious trouble, she said.

Even after graduating, Eugene's brushes with the law were relatively minor. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows Eugene was arrested as a teenager in 1997 by the Miami-Dade Police Department for battery, but the charges were later dropped.

Over the next few years, Eugene picked up seven more arrests, but none for violence. They include four marijuana arrests and one for selling drugs near a school.  

His last arrest came in 2009, a marijuana charge that was dropped, state records show.

Jim Hall, director of Nova Southeastern University's Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse, said the level of violence associated with the incident led him to believe synthetic drugs commonly known as "bath salts" may be involved, but he could not be certain. Cocaine and methamphetamines could also bring out such violent behavior, he said.

Hall described bath salts as being among the "front burner" of drugs catching the attention of law enforcement officials and users. They are part of a group of hundreds of psychoactive substances that are not regulated and sold as legal products.

The drugs mostly comprise chemicals called mephedrone and MDPV. They are usually swallowed or snorted.

He said there have been many reports of the drugs causing violent behavior, but nothing as violent as cannibalism.

"A key issue is that nobody ever knows what's in them. They can be something mild one week, something very strong the next week," he said.

Efforts to contact the victim's family on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Poppo has a lengthy, non-violent criminal record dating back to the mid-1980s, mostly for crimes associated with living on the streets. That includes a 1983 bust for sleeping in public and numerous arrests for public and disorderly intoxication.

His last arrest on record came in 2006 for trespassing.

The quality of the victim's recovery will depend largely on how bad the damage was, said Michael Salzhauer, a Miami plastic surgeon who has performed facial reconstruction surgery for gunshot victims.

"The real question is how much skin is left," said Salzhauer, chief surgeon at Bal Harbour Plastic Surgery Associates. "Once you clean out the blood and see how much skin is left, we may have a candidate for a face transplant."

Full face transplant surgeries are rare and cutting edge, Salzhauer said.

The first such surgery in the United States was performed on a Texas man just last year. Another recipient was the Connecticut woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee in 2009. Her face transplant surgery was in May 2011.

Even without a transplant, Poppo could still benefit from reconstruction using skin tissue from other parts of his body, including the buttocks and forearms, Salzhauer said.

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

ijrodriguez@tribune.com or 954-356-4605.    Sun-Sentinel

Warning, if you are squeamish, do not scroll down.

Ronald Poppo Before 

Police sources have identified the homeless victim in a horrific, bloody assault in which a naked North Miami Beach man chewed off a large portion of another's man's face, as first reported by the Miami Herald andCBS Miami.

Ronald Poppo, 65, is in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, just blocks from where he was attacked by 31-year-old Rudy Eugene in broad daylight Saturday on the Downtown off-ramp of Miami's busy MacArthur Causeway.

According to CBS, Poppo's arrest records -- mostly for the sort of petty crime common among the homeless -- show he has lived in New York City and New Orleans but suggest he has spent at least a good deal of his time in Miami since 1978. He is not found in Miami-Dade court records after a 2006 trespassing charge.

Strangely, Saturday's savage attack is apparently not the first time Poppo has been seriously injured Downtown. The Miami New Times reports that he was shot in Miami's Bayfront Park by an unidentified person in 1976, spending five days at Jackson. His given address at the time was a local Salvation Army.

Gruesome photos circulating the web suggest that if Poppo survives Saturday's assault, he may do so without much of his face. Hospital employees have so far not been able to contact any of Poppo's family, according to CBS.

"It was not only grotesque, it was just very sad, the amount of blood," Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, told the Associated Press. "It was very sad to see what happened to this gentleman that had his face eaten."

Miami Police have so far disclosed few details about the incident, in which Eugene was shot dead by a police officer. But an eyewitness who was riding his bike nearby told WSVN he flagged down a police officer after coming across Eugene, stark naked, chewing off Poppo's face.

Source: Huffington Post

Ronald Poppo After - in need of prayers, please!

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