By Michael Amon and Susana Enriquez
Newsday

CALVERTON, N.Y. — An extremely obese man who had fallen in his Calverton home struggled for more than two days alone before finally reaching his phone on Sunday evening to call for help, authorities said yesterday.

Upon finding David Schock, 57, inside his disheveled modular home in Thurm's Estates at 7:42 p.m. Sunday, Wading River firefighters determined he was too large to remove through the front door, authorities said. Riverhead town officials estimated his weight at more than 600 pounds.

Firefighters removed one of the home's walls with saws and backed an ambulance up to the opening, said First Assistant Chief Andrew Donnelly of the Wading River Fire Department. At least 10 firefighters then hoisted Schock inside onto a custom-built wooden backboard designed for large people, Donnelly said.

"We did our best in all honesty to not damage this guy's house," said Donnelly, who declined to describe Schock's medical condition. "He definitely wasn't coming out through the door."

By 10:12 p.m. Sunday, Schock was on his way to Stony Brook University Medical Center. His condition was not available yesterday, but he was admitted.

Described by neighbors as reclusive, Schock had lived in the blue, single-wide mobile home in Thurm's Estates, a 55 and over community, for more than two decades, taking care of his elderly mother, Genevieve, until her recent death.

Though always heavy, neighbors said Schock had been mobile until a few years ago, driving his vintage green Buick to get groceries and medicine. Then, his health deteriorated and he began staying indoors, getting around on a wooden box affixed with wheels, said neighbor Joseph Kummer, 79, president of a mobile home owners association that includes Thurm's Estates.

Dorothy Christian was one of a few neighbors who helped Schock, bringing him medication from a list he would hang on his doorknob, with cash tucked inside. Others would bring him groceries.

"He was very private," Christian said. "He didn't want people to bother him. ... He was intelligent. He did everything on his computer but he couldn't move."

Yesterday, the 6-foot-wide by 6-foot-tall hole in Schock's house had been boarded up with plywood. Firefighters had moved some of his effects outside on the lawn, including a stationary bicycle and a bird cage, the home of Schock's macaw parrot, which officials said was taken in by the Suffolk Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.