LAUDERHILL, Fla. – It would be nice if Shanna Gibson, a retiree, could spend her final days in the comfort of her home at the International Village in Lauderhill, but the cancer patient has been in a hospice facility for about a week instead.
Gibson said that during her discharge from a rehab center, they advised her that they would not be able to send her home because it would be considered “an unsafe discharge.”
Gibson’s brother Patrick Holt is trying to help and he learned that an elevator in his sister’s building hasn’t worked in months. He was having to carry her up to the third floor in her wheelchair.
“Over six months ago, the elevator wasn’t working,” Holt said.
International Village’s elevator failed a county inspection in July, records show. Complaints were filed against the property managers. The issues landed them before a county magistrate in 2021 and the fines totaled more than $13,000, and Miami-Dade County was still imposing daily fines.
“There is no urgency because it seems to me that it’s cheaper to pay the fine than it is to fix the elevator,” Holt said.
Meanwhile, Holt said cancer in Gibson’s brain, breast, and lungs is spreading. He said the property manager, who did not want to comment on this story, told him that the elevator won’t be working for six to eight more weeks.
“It’s like a double-whammy because it hurts me when she tells me that she wants to go home, and I am not able to do it,” Holt said.
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