Grandpa forced to use stairs in a coma, 1 month after fall
PETALING JAYA: John Joseph Samikanoo has always been an active man.
The sprightly 67-year-old pensioner used to enjoy playing football and badminton with his grandchildren, doing school runs and spending time with his family.
But he might be spending the rest of his life bedridden after a fall at the staircase of his PKNS apartment building at SS8, Kelana Jaya, left him in a coma for a month.
Returning home in the early hours of March 13, John was forced to walk up the stairs to his 10th floor unit as all three lifts at the apartment were out of order – a regular occurrence, according to residents FMT talked to recently.
A notice put up by the apartment’s management body next to the ground floor lifts states that they have not been repaired, or had their parts changed, since the apartment was built in 1984.
John, like the other residents of the other 230-odd units, had already grown accustomed to the lifts being out of service and having to use the stairs.
But on March 13, he only made it up to the first floor before falling down several steps. A resident found him covered in blood on a landing.
Found next to him was a rusty stair railing, which police believed might have given way when John was using it to support himself. Checks on the next two flights of stairs found similarly rusty railings which looked like they had seen better days.
The resident informed the security guard, who called the police. An ambulance took John to University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC).
He has since been transferred to the Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC), where neurosurgeons said he had suffered multiple hemorrhages, strokes and facial fractures in addition to broken ribs and an arm.
“My dad hasn’t been conscious since the day he fell, and doctors have said he will not be able to get up, walk or talk again,” said daughter Michele.
“The doctors expect him to be bedridden for the rest of his life.”
She said she was unsure which party should be responsible for the lifts’ maintenance – the management body, the Occupational Safety and Health Department (DOSH), PKNS or the Selangor government.
Poor maintenance
Speaking to FMT, several residents complained that poor maintenance of the lifts at the 15-floor building has been an issue for years, but the management body said it does not have enough funds.
Banners encouraging residents to pay up their dues are plastered across the walls surrounding the lifts, with a signboard stating “Servicing works in progress,” blocking the entrance to one lift.
The residents recalled that one resident had suffered a heart attack while climbing the stairs, and how a bypass surgery patient had to be carried up to his 15th floor apartment on a wheelchair after the procedure late last month.
When FMT visited the building on Sunday, only one of the three lifts was working, with a group waiting to use it.
“This one lift is not enough,” said a resident waiting with her husband and young daughter. “People use it all the time, sometimes up to 2am or 3am. It’s overused.”
A cleaner living on the seventh floor, Deiva Aparanjitham Nagan, 60, said it is a struggle for her to walk up and down the stairs when the lifts are not in service.
“I have knee problems, so it’s not easy for me, especially when the railings are broken in many places,” she said.
Mogilan Raju, 27, said his father often had a tough time going up and down the stairs to their ninth floor unit for his twice-monthly physiotherapy appointments at Assunta Hospital.
Another resident, who wanted to be known as Jisenaden, said the management body’s “excuse” had always been that many residents did not pay their management fees on time.
“But I pay, so I should be able to use the lifts,” he said.
A notice next to the lifts states that DOSH had previously declared all the lifts to be unfit for use as the ropes were in poor condition.
FMT has reached out to the authorities for comment. - FMT
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