‘Human cyborg’ sucker-punched
An epileptic Bronx woman whose brain computer chip makes her “one of the first human cyborgs” was suckerpunched at the Grand Central subway station, police sources said Thursday.
Emily Borghard, 28, had just gotten off the 7 train and was taking the escalator to the mezzanine when she was socked in the left side of her face at around 6:05 a.m., the sources said.
“All of a sudden, there was a shooting pain in my skull,” she told The Post. “I thought I might be having another seizure.”
Borghard — who had the chip implanted in her brain as a means to prevent her chronic seizures — quickly flagged down transit officers, who arrested career criminal Deaja Hardy at the scene.
“With what I’ve been through, getting hit in the face is not a good thing,” said Borghard, a member of the Guardian Angels.
“My neuropace is on the right ear and I got punched in the back left of my head. I have two electrodes, and one of them is in the black left of my head.”
Borghard — who was dubbed “one of the first human cyborgs” back in May by The Wall Street Journal — said she attempted to stop her attacker, despite being in excruciating pain.
“I started screaming, ‘Step back and put your hands up!’ ” she said. “He started taunting me.”
Officers arrived and later arrested Hardy, 28, who has 22 prior arrests.
Despite her condition, Borghard refused medical attention and managed to make it home on her own.
“I was a little bit lightheaded and still pretty upset,” she.
“The look on my face — I didn’t look like myself. I looked pissed off and nervous.”
Before getting her chip, Borghard said she went undiagnosed for years — suffering hundreds of seizures a day.
“Unfortunately, because of a misdiagnosis, I was suffering from autoimmune encephalitis,” she said.
“It naturally impairs the brain, which caused the seizures.”
Doctors eventually planted the neuro-stimulating chip, and now Borghard is nearly seizure-free.
“It’s a small computer chip that’s in a cradle, and at some point, I use a wand and it downloads to a computer,” she explained. “The two electrodes are there to recognize small activities in the brain. They’re fine-tuned to recognize disaster.”