When a state park police canine unit first found him at Caleb Smith State Park last week, Dr. Jerome Nadler of Setauket was conscious but was weak, weathered, and dehydrated, according to doctors who on Thursday listed him in serious condition.
But they have since upgraded his condition to good, a spokesman for Stony Brook Medicine said Monday.
Nadler went out for a, but never returned to his vehicle that day, and authorities began searching the shoreline – a search that included divers and aviation – at the state park as well as nearby areas. On Thursday, he was found around noon in an area surrounded by brush and thickets.
His son Matthew, who flew in from Kansas to be with his father, described him as "a very tough individual" at a press conference on Thursday. Initially, Matthew Nadler said, the family thought "it seemed like a dim possibility" that he would be found alive.
"It's a miraculous story," Matthew Nadler said.
