A young “home health aide” had the end of her finger cut off because of a mishap in an electrical elevator, on April 30th. Indira Abreu, 23, was working as a tenant in New York City in public housing at the Sedgwick Houses in Bronx, and stepped into an elevator to see a patient on the fifth floor.
The elevator was an old-fashioned model, with an outer door that swung out and an inner door that slid shut. When another passenger stepped out on the third floor, the outer door stopped short of closing, leaving Ms. Abreu stranded. Her storyline of the incident begins with her grabbing the edge of the door to pull it closed because it did not have an inside handle.
The door slammed into her right hand, catching her middle finger between the door and the frame. The tip of her finger up to the end joint was sliced off. “I immediately felt pain, and then I saw the blood and I just grabbed onto my hand,” said Ms. Abreu. “I held my hand. I still didn’t realize part of my finger was missing.”
Tenants who live in New York City public housing have been complaining almost everyday on the inconvenience that the elevators in the building have been giving. More than 170 injuries have occurred in elevators of the public housing in New York City including injuries to hands, arms, feet, backs, heads, legs and knees, according to the agency and to the records.
The Housing Authority, the City’s biggest landlord, help with poor families by giving them a lower rent. As a result of Ms. Abreu’s accident, and other complaints, the authority pledged last year to spend $107 million to replace about 550 elevators in the next five years.
“We care about our residents,” Mr. Morales said. “We care about our elevator situation and are working at it. Any injury to us is one too many. If anybody gets hurt, it’s a concern for us.”
From 2001 to 2007, the agency paid $3.5 million in settlements and judgments in elevator-related personal injury lawsuits, according to the documents. The agency has an operating budget deficit of $177 million in fiscal year 2009 and has closed underused community centers, eliminated hundreds of jobs and raised rents on its highest-income households to cut costs.
After Ms. Abreu’s accident, an inspector issued a violation to the agency for failing to maintain the elevator, in part because the outer door needed adjustment. Ms. Abreu is suing the agency and hiring Herbert Subin as her lawyer, and says she still has pain in her right hand, which she keeps covered with gloves.
“I was a happy person before this accident, and that happy person no longer exists,” she said
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That story definitely boggles my brain. If the elevator has presented many problems before why hasnt it been fixed yet? Isnt it more of a hassle getting sued rather than just fixing the contraption? I feel bad for that lady that she lost the tip of her finger. I would defintely be taking legal action too if I was her. I dont believe in suing people for every little thing that happens to you. But, if they have had problems in the past and still never did anything about it then they deserve to be sued. But it could have been a lot worse for her, it didnt need to happen. But she should try to move on the best she can.
ReplyDeleteWhat a mess--a municipal agency with a huge budget deficit, large pay-outs due to lawsuits, with more to come, and a pledge to spend $107 million in funds that it doesn't have to fix the elevators. If you ask me, more needs fixing than just the elevators. Sounds like a major overhaul should take place in the agency, starting at the top, in order to make the necessary adjustments to run more efficiently and offer safe buildings for tenants. If those elevators were really the double-door kind, then we are talking OLD!!! They should all be replaced before some child is seriously injured.
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ReplyDeleteI believe this could happen, I stayed in a hotel in New York and for us to be paying over $100.00 a night, we were living in a dump and the elevators were just as described above.
ReplyDeleteHopefully this is a wake up call for all the run down hotels up their that are are trying to do nothing but make money rather than fixing the safety issues that are obvious to everyone.
When people complain about stuff, their complaints are typically ignored. The only time that people wake up is when something awful happens. Your blog said that there has been many complaints about the elevator in the past. After that woman's finger got sliced off, now they want to try and fix the problem.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they've fixed the elevator since last year (April)?
ReplyDeleteShe should have picked up the piece of her finger that was missing, take it to the hospital with her, and she should have had them sew it back on. It's awful that she was injured, but also, she's very fortunate that it's just a finger, and not an arm; then she wouldn't have a need to wear gloves.
I hope now they've fixed the elevators.