LAUDERHILL, Fla. – Life has been difficult enough for 61-year-old Shauna Gibson. She has been dealing with two stage 4 cancers and the debilitating pain that comes with them.
Gibson is unable to walk and has to go up three flights of stairs, every day. She says the elevator at her condominium complex has been out for six months.
Her older brother Patrick Holt came into town last week from Georgia to help his sister.
It’s a task that would be much easier if her building in the International Village in Lauderhill had a working elevator.
“Shauna has stage 4 breast cancer, stage 4 bone cancer and has lesions on her spine,” said Holt.
He says plans to stay by her side, driving her to appointments and helping with her daily needs.
“She lives on the third floor and had to crawl step by step,” Holt said. “She had to crawl three floors to get into her apartment.”
Holt told Local 10 News that without the wheelchair, getting Gibson up the stairs is a 45-minute process, even with four people helping.
Gibson was heard saying, “no, no, I don’t wanna go now--I don’t wanna go now,” when Holt asked her to take the stairs.
Without the elevator, Holt says getting Shauna in and out of the building has become a terrifying process.
Management has only told them that they can’t repair the elevator due to a dispute with a third company.
“Shauna, you’re not going to ever fall,” Holt said.
Despite the comforting words from her brother, there’s currently no end in sight to this daily torture for Gibson.
Local 10 News reporter Cody Weddle said he witnessed the local fire department and an ambulance at the complex that will help her get downstairs and out of the building.
Local 10 News also reached out to management with International Village, code enforcement and city leaders but has not heard back from them.