Dr. Sheldon Steinbach dead of apparent suicide

A Manhattan doctor plunged 30 stories to his death from his Upper East Side high-rise yesterday in an apparent suicide, police and witnesses said.

The body of Dr. Sheldon “Shelly” Steinbach, 68, an anesthesiologist, slammed into a second-floor balcony at the building, at 246 E. 63rd St., at 9:35 a.m.

“I heard a large bang, and we looked outside and saw him. His body just exploded,” said resident Jonathan Kershner, 25, who lives two floors above where the doctor landed.

“Then a doorman came by saying a woman was looking for her husband,” Kershner added.

 

“The cops had covered up the body by the time he came up. The doorman put two and two together.”

A man answering the door at Steinbach’s 30th-floor apartment said it was too soon to comment on the tragic death.

One neighbor on the same floor said: “He was a very nice guy, a super-nice guy, pleasant, professional and quiet. I’m shocked.”

Police do not suspect any criminality.

Steinbach had a Twitter page but had not updated it since October 2011.

The personal description on his account reads: “I am an anesthesiologist in New York City and am having a great day. Married. Love aerobic activities and music.”

Steinbach spent much of his career in New York, studying medicine at the New York Medical College in Valhalla in 1968 and completing his training at Staten Island University Hospital and New York Presbyterian Hospital, state records show.

In February of last year, he settled a Manhattan malpractice claim for an “above average” amount, state Department of Health records show.

Another malpractice claim from Nassau County in 2007 was settled for an “average” amount, the records say.

Separately, around the same time yesterday, a man attempted to take his own life by jumping from the third floor of his apartment building on Harman Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn, police said.

The man, said to be in his 30s, was taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in critical condition.          






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