Trapped In Elevator For A Day? Nursing Home Apologizes For Losing 87-Year-Old Woman On Christmas Eve
An elderly woman was trapped in an elevator for an entire day at a nursing home in Mississauga, Ontario. To make matters worse, the ordeal occurred on Christmas Eve.
According to Yahoo News, the 87-year-old woman spent more than 29 hours in the elevator at Malton Village Long Term Care Center. She was trapped from sometime in the evening on December 23 until 2 am on Christmas morning.
Emil Kolb, the chair of the Region of Peel, said:
“We consider this an extremely serious failure… No resident or family should ever have to experience such an event again… The Region of Peel takes responsibility for the care and safety of the residents of our long-term care centers very seriously. We have apologized to the resident and her family for this gap in our duty.”
CNews reports that the 87-year-old woman was dropped off at the nursing home on December 23, but the woman never made it to her floor. Instead, she got stuck in the elevator.
The family thought that the woman was safe at the nursing home, and the staff mistakenly thought that the woman was still with her family. When the nursing home staff noticed that the woman still hadn’t returned the following day (even though she was already at the nursing home), they called the family to confirm the woman’s whereabouts.
The nursing home was searched by the staff, and then by police, once it was confirmed that the woman was missing. The staff eventually checked the elevators, which were shut down on December 24 because they were malfunctioning because it was “the only place left to search.”
Kolb said that there was an ongoing investigation into how the woman slipped through the cracks at the nursing home.
Kolb said:
“We believe she became trapped in the elevator between floors on her way to her room and was unable to obtain assistance for the next 24 hours. This is one of the key areas of focus in our investigations. How could that happen?”
The woman was taken to the hospital to be evaluated. She was then returned to the nursing home where she was, presumably, escorted to her room by a member of the nursing home staff.
