Crash victim Anthony Romeo Gestone's funeral services are set

Funeral services will take place Wednesday and Thursday for a Farmingdale man gravely injured in an April 9 crash but kept on life support until last week, when his family lost their legal battle to keep him alive.

Services for Anthony Romeo Gestone, 23, will take place from 7 to 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday, and from 10 to 10:15. a.m on Thursday, at First Baptist Church of Patchogue, according to an online obituary. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the Ruland Funeral Home, also in Patchogue.

Gestone had remained in a coma at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow since he crossed over a center median of the Wantagh State Parkway on April 9 and into the northbound lanes before crashing into a tree, family and friends said.

His family had asked a court to prevent NUMC from conducting tests that would have determined if he could be declared brain dead. Instead, the family wanted Gestone transported to New Beginnings, a Wading River-based nonprofit that offers long-term rehabilitation services to survivors of traumatic brain injury, as well as other cognitive and physical disorders.

They won a temporary restraining order blocking the hospital from administering the tests until Gestone could be examined by a private neurologist. The results were inconclusive, family members told Newsday. 

Last Tuesday, a Nassau County State Supreme Court judge's order provided the family 24 hours to transport Gestone to a different facility. The family could not successfully facilitate the move, and NUMC conducted neurological tests that determined he had no brain activity. The family was given one hour to pay their respects before Gestone was removed from life support Wednesday, per the court order.

"Our thoughts are with the family during this profoundly difficult time," the hospital said in a statement. "Over the past several weeks, we have witnessed their deep love and unwavering commitment to Anthony. We are grateful to the clinicians and staff at Nassau University Medical Center for their professionalism, compassion, and dedication in caring for him."

Gestone's uncle, Joseph Hauser, previously told Newsday the family had determined Wading River was not a "viable option," and expressed doubts he could have survived the move. The hospital had reached out to more than a dozen other medical facilities to explore potential transfer options for Gestone, officials said. But each one declined.

First responders to the crash extricated Gestone from the vehicle and transported him to NUMC, where surgeons removed part of his skull and diagnosed a traumatic brain injury. Gestone sustained intracranial bleeding and brain swelling, Dr. Ryan Senese, a trauma surgeon who had been treating the victim, detailed in an April 28 affidavit. The middle of Gestone's brain also shifted "massively," Senese wrote.

 NUMC determined the next day that Gestone met the criteria for neurological brain death. But his mother, Angelique Gestone, objected to the tests, arguing they would violate her religious beliefs as a devout Christian. 

"We all fought so hard for him," Hauser wrote in an social media post he shared with Newsday. "But not nearly as hard as he fought himself. He was truly one tough cookie."

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.