The man locked up for nearly 23 years after being wrongfully convicted of murder suffered a serious heart attack a day after being released from prison, his lawyer said.
David Ranta, 58, was rushed on Friday to an undisclosed city hospital, where doctors discovered that one of his arteries was completely blocked and another was partially obstructed.
“They cleared the artery so it is now flowing freely, but he will have to have another procedure,” said Ranta’s lawyer, Pierre Sussman.
Ranta’s family would not disclose where he’s being treated.
“He’s doing great,” a Ranta niece said yesterday. “We’re just trying to get our lives together. We’re just trying to grasp everything that happened.”
Ranta had been hiding at a hotel to avoid attention from the press since his release Thursday.
He was cleared after the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office determined the case was riddled with errors and false testimony.
A shaken Ranta said he was “overwhelmed,” after Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik vacated his 1991 conviction in the killing of Williamsburg rabbi Chaskel Werzberger, who was shot in the head during a jewelry heist the year before.
Hours later, he chowed down on steak to celebrate his freedom.