March 15, 2005 -- A respected Manhattan dentist who was depressed over his failing eyesight climbed to the roof of his apartment building and plunged to his death as neighbors watched in horror, authorities said yesterday. Howard Brodsky, 43, was a wreck over the past few weeks because he feared he would lose his livelihood and be forced to go on disability after a recent eye operation and partial loss of his vision. Brodsky ? who had plenty of money, loving parents, a girlfriend and an enviable life, according to friends ? climbed from his 10th-floor apartment at 412 E. 55th St. to the top of the 13-story building just after 3 p.m. Sunday. "He was walking around on the roof in jogging pants, sneakers and a shirt, looking around," said Rodger Rowe, 58, who watched the entire tragedy unfold through the window of his apartment on the 16th floor of the building next door. "I thought he'd just been exercising and had come out to catch some air. He looked perfectly happy. "But then he made a very quick move and got up on the wall. He held on with his hands for about a second, then he let go.'' A witness said a couple who appeared to be Brodsky's mother and father arrived shortly after the tragedy and confronted a blond girl who seemed to be his girlfriend. "He had called his mother and said he wanted to go to hospital," said the woman, who works in the apartment building next door to Brodsky's and declined to be named. "So his mother was screaming to his girlfriend, 'Why didn't you take him to hospital? Why didn't you take him to hospital?' " Staff at Brodsky's dental practice on East 57th Street near Lexington Avenue declined to be interviewed.

Often times I wonder why
There's love and hate, theres live or die.
When sickness comes I must decide:
When feelings go, theres suicide.