The Manhattan mom who shielded her children when a tree came crashing down on them in Central Park last month may never walk again and is planning to sue the city for $200 million, The Post has learned.
Fashion director Anne Monoky Goldman is “completely immobilized” with a fractured cervical spine that prevents her from breastfeeding her 2-month-old, said her attorney Tom Kline.
“She is not allowed to move her neck for two to three months,” Kline’s co-counsel Jordan Merson added. “We have concerns that she may never walk the same again or walk at all again.”
They plan to file a notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against the city Wednesday.
The 39-year-old mom, who was struck by the massive tree while walking along West Drive near West 62nd Street on Aug. 15, also suffered a concussion, Merson said.
“The way Ms. Monoky laid out to protect her children, it was heroic and she truly took the brunt of the force of the tree,” Merson said.
“She has complete memory loss from the time of the accident,” he said.
Her 2-year-old son, Grant, endured trauma to the head and bleeding in his brain, Merson said.
His 4-year-old brother, Will, “was shaken up” but is OK, and 2-month-old James, who was strapped to his mother’s chest at the time, also escaped unscathed.
“The tragedy here is that she was of course very attached to her newborn baby. She took time off of her job to be with him, but she is literally immobilized so she can’t breastfeed,” Kline said.
Goldman was on maternity leave from her position as director of social media at Tory Burch.
Her attorneys believe the tree was diseased and decayed.
“It was a tremendous hazard,” Merson said. ”It’s a small miracle that her children weren’t even more injured.”
A city Law Department spokeswoman said the claim will be reviewed after it’s filed.