The Westchester grandmother who plunged into an open manhole in Midtown died of scald burns and an assortment of other horrendous injuries, the city’s medical examiner found Wednesday.

The shocking death of Donike Gocaj, 56, was ruled an accident by the examiner, officials revealed.

Gocaj fell into an uncovered manhole after parking her SUV along East 52nd Street near Fifth Avenue at around 11:20 p.m. on Monday.
Donika Gocaj (right) and her son Armando Gocaj (left).Donike Gocaj (right) who plunged into an open manhole in Midtown on Monday died of scald burns and an assortment of other horrendous injuries.Facebook/Donika Gocaj
Con Edison workers investigating a manhole.Gocaj’s death was ruled an accident Tuesday by the examiner.Robert Mecea for New York Post
She suffered burns that included inhalational thermal injuries, along with blunt force trauma to her torso — all of which caused her death, the examiner found.

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The ghastly combination of injuries is consistent with a fall into the superheated steam often found within New York City manholes, said Barbara Butcher, former chief of staff at the city’s medical examiner’s office.

“Perhaps the most damaging injury was the inhalation of steam, which would have damaged the alveoli, the tissue in the lungs, which transports oxygen to the bloodstream,” Butcher said. “When they swell, they can no longer bring in oxygen.

“The steam would have caused her to have scald burns on her skin, but the real cause of injury would be the inhalation.”

Lee Ann Grossberg, a forensic pathologist in North Carolina, said such injuries are particularly dreadful.

“That would have been a really painful death,” she said,

A witness said Gocaj – a devoted mom and grandmother who lived in Briarcliff Manor – hauntingly screamed “I’m dying” as bystanders frantically tried to help her before first responded arrived.

The Con Edison utility hole she had “dropped” into appeared filled with boiling water and steam, the witness said.

The medical examiner’s ruling confirmed that Gocaj indeed died of horrific heat-related injuries.

SOURCE: https://nypost.com/2026/05/20/us-news/westchester-grandma-donike-gocajs-horrific-cause-of-death-revealed-after-plunging-down-open-nyc-manhole/