Hospital Woes
More bad news for Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital after the deaths of novelist Olivia Goldsmith and another patient this year. When a 37-year-old man developed breathing problems following nonelective retinal surgery last month, nurses sprang into action—by calling 911. The patient was rushed to the ER at New York Hospital, where he died the next day. A MEETH spokeswoman says the hospital is equipped to deal with any emergency and that an in-house doctor determined the patient needed outside care. While meeth would not comment on the details of the case, an attending surgeon at the hospital says that “anesthesiologists [who can secure a patient’s airway] are not required to be in the hospital if there are no cases going on. They have to be within an hour’s distance.” And Thomas Romo, MEETH’s chief of facial plastic surgery, says, “The nurses called 911 because they thought it was the quickest way to get a response.” There is no official cause of death yet, and the case is under investigation by the state Department of Health. “Most people are thinking it’s a pulmonary embolism,” says Romo. Meanwhile, because the man died at New York Hospital, the incident could be listed as a death for that hospital—not meeth.

Beach Reit
Going boldly where no one has gone before (besides Oscar de la Renta, the Fanjul clan, and Club Med), a group of New Yorkers are developing a 2,400-acre beach property, aptly named Playa Grande, in the Dominican Republic. Led by money manager Boykin Curry, the partners include fashion designer and Bush family pal Lela Rose, Moby, ex-Microsoft CFO Greg Maffei, Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria, event planner Bronson Van Wyck, Miranda Rockefeller, and Alexandre Von Furstenberg. Permanent spots are by invitation only.

The Art Of War
Artforum has enlisted fourteen artists—including James Rosenquist, Elizabeth Peyton, Jeremy Deller, and Rachel Harrison —to create work for an election issue next month. Peyton did a portrait of John Kerry. Deller’s contribution is inspired by an old photo of Saddam Hussein shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld. Rosenquist’s painting features a tree stump adorned with the American flag. And Harrison’s collage of horses has a “very Republican-men power feel,” says senior editor Scott Rothkopf.

West Side Stories
It looks as if another meatpacking-district club has become a casualty of the area’s fickle trend cycles. Though they deny it, sources say the owners of Cielo on Little West 12th Street have been soliciting bidders—including investors in the club PM—on their $1.5 million lease. Nearby, the former Ace Gallery on Hudson Street has been taken over by Sky Studio owner Jonathan Leitersdorf and developers Chris Schlank and Nicholas Bienstock. They plan to turn it into an event space called Skylight, set to open by Fashion Week.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Deborah Schoeneman
• Table of Contents: August 23, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!