ALBANY — Joshua Soden, the 29-year-old Ballston Spa man who police say was struck by a drunken driver outside Bentley’s Tavern in Malta, has died.
His family gathered at Albany Medical Center Hospital on Friday for an “Honor Walk” at Soden’s death.
He was an organ donor. To commemorate organ donors, loved ones and health workers line the hall for a solemn moment of appreciation as the person is taken to an operating room for organ recovery.
The gathering was a “small, private gathering of close family and friends,” according to a GoFundMe page created to raise funds for his medical care and other expenses.
“Please continue to keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as they say their goodbyes and take these first steps through their grief,” the GoFundMe said.
Sodon was struck by a vehicle on Sept. 8 and pinned underneath it. Firefighters extricated him, and paramedics and doctors resuscitated him through two cardiac arrests, but the family said he was in such critical condition that the hospital could not even use an MRI scan to look at his injuries.
His loved ones also wrote that Soden “is so much more than this tragedy.”
“His laugh is contagious, the kind that makes everyone join in even when they don’t know the joke,” they wrote. “He’s the guy who always notices when someone’s having a hard day and goes out of his way to life them up.”
State Police said a Glenville woman, Morgan Lange, struck Soden with her car as she left Bentley’s Tavern in Malta.
Lange, 33, was arrested on charges of felony second-degree vehicular assault and tampering with physical evidence, as well as misdemeanor first offense driving while intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle with a 0.08 or higher blood-alcohol content, and two traffic violations. Soden’s family is suing her.
State troopers said she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.12, removed an open can of White Claw hard seltzer from her car and had asked another person to get rid of it.