Elderly woman rescued by firefighters after falling down lift shaft at Westcliff care home (From Southend Standard)
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Elderly woman rescued by firefighters after falling down lift shaft at Westcliff care home
11:19am Friday 3rd August 2012 in News By Emma Thomas
FIREFIGHTERS rescued an elderly woman after she fell four feet down a lift shaft at a Westcliff care home.
The 93-year-old woman had got up at about 5.50am and went to use the lift at Poppy Lodge in Drake Road.
She managed to open the door and walk straight in while the lift was on another floor.
The woman suffered cuts and bruises as well as a leg injury.
Leigh firefighters Ben Manning and Wayne Davey carried the woman to safety.
Ben said: "I got down there and lifted her out. She was shaken up and a bit bruised. We reassured her and gave her oxygen. We were just keeping her chatting, she was a lovely old girl."
Comments(4)
R85
says...
1:33pm Fri 3 Aug 12
ThecountrysgonetopotThe safety mechanism must have either been disabled or faulty! A woman in Manhattan was trapped by a lift as she stepped onto it less than a year ago. It shot upwards and literally crushed her between the lift and the wall with other employees in the lift watching the whole ordeal unfold. In that case the engineer had disengaged the safety mechanism to work on it and hadn’t reengaged it! Expect an extremely justifiable lawsuit!
! wrote:
Glad the lady was not injured too badly. I have a question: How can anyone manage to open a lift door? Does it not require a special key in order for the door to be opened? If this is not the case for this door then i think a whole new lift needs to be installed with this safety mechanism installed
1nails
says...
5:36pm Fri 3 Aug 12
IN A CARE HOME ??.
Where were the supervisory staff........
This is terrible.!!!
OnionLouise
says...
5:59pm Sat 4 Aug 12
I think we should not jump on the hysterical bandwagon.
I agree that the lift shaft needs to be looked at - and I'd it was reported previously as faulty, then of course, lessons must be learned.
As a manager, I've been on the receiving end of inappropriate and unfounded accusations. Until all the facts are established, let's drop the drama!
The last CQC report assessed as full compliance - maintenance records etc would have been checked at that time and found to be in order.
Accidents happen. Let's learn by them and not be alarmist!
Thecountrysgonetopot! says...
12:33pm Fri 3 Aug 12
How can anyone manage to open a lift door? Does it not require a special key in order for the door to be opened? If this is not the case for this door then i think a whole new lift needs to be installed with this safety mechanism installed