Woman in a wheelchair feels trapped in seniors’ complex

A 76-year-old Nova Scotia woman with a broken hip says she hasn't been outside in two months because the elevator in the seniors' complex where she lives is broken.

Margie MacDougall says she just wants to get outside. (Norma-Jean MacPhee/CBC)

Margie MacDougall of Inverness broke her hip last year and uses a wheelchair to get around. She feels confined on the second floor.

"When the elevator was up and running I used to take my wheelchair on it and go down and sit in the lobby with the people down there, you know? If it was a good day I'd ask one of them to push me out to the front so I could wheel around out there for a little bit, you know, but right now it's going on two and a half months since I've seen the outside world," she said.

MacDougall said she's made dozens of calls to politicians and housing officials.

"They kept telling me this day and that day and the next day and the other day and last week and this week so at the end of it I just wasn't believing any of it," she said.

"Makes me feel frustrated, very frustrated."

The Department of Community Services, which oversees the building, said they need a specific part to fix the shaft.

The stairs Margie MacDougall has to get down in a wheelchair. (Norma-Jean MacPhee/CBC)

Last week it started staffing people during the day and on-call at night to help the seniors navigate the home's two flights of stairs.

"They're not as happy, they're certainly not as happy and we listen to that, we hear about it," said Ramona Miller, a homecare worker in the building.

"She's standing for the rest of them because there are different members in here that have the same disabilities and can't get out, there's more than one."

MacDougall said she missed a doctor's appointment because of the broken elevator and she refused to let four men carry her down the stairs.

"But I had my pride and I wasn't being carried downstairs to get no doctors' appointment. How was I going to get back up? Drag me up again?"

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