A security guard remains on life support nearly two months after a Long Island hospital patient allegedly attacked the 62-year-old during an overnight shift. On Wednesday, Eduard Lopez pleaded not guilty to a grand jury indictment charging the man with three counts of felony assault and two coun ty of misdemeanor assault. If convicted, the 28-year-old, of Freeport, faces up to seven years in prison. Lopez is being represented by a legal aid attorney, who did not provide a comment following Wednesday’s hearing. The attack occurred after midnight on Oct. 16 at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre. Gardy Coriolan was working the overnight shift when a patient became irate with a doctor. His family says he tried to help the doctor, and ended up getting assaulted. “I was told he was hit center mass in the chest. He was hit in the face numerous times and he fell and went into cardiac arrest,” Sonya Coriolan, the victim’s wife, previously said. Prosecutors said Lopez punched Coriolan in the face, causing him to fall onto a hospital bed. “I was notified that he has 90% brain damage and that it’s a possibility he will never wake up,” Sonya said. Coriolan is a retired New York City correction officer who has worked for nearly three decades at the hospital. His family has urged prosecutors to upgrade the charges. “I want attempted murder. This individual should do jail time. I want him to be taken away from his family and put in jail like my husband‘s been taken away from his family,” Sonya said. Coriolan was always concerned something like this would happen, according to his family, because incidents with patients seemed to be happening more often. “He talked about the people that were coming into the hospital. They had physical fights with the staff,” said the victim’s daughter, Melanie Adams. “He was constantly intervening and breaking fights up.” Coriolan’s wife said “his words were exactly that somebody’s gonna get hurt or somebody’s gonna die here.” In a statement, Mercy Hospital said “the security team responded quickly and safely de-escalated the situation. A short time later, one of our security officers experienced a medical emergency. We remain focused on ensuring the well-being and safety of everyone in our emergency department.” ...read more read less