By Walter F. Roche Jr.
A patient in a state run nursing home was trapped at the ceiling in a lift till he became unresponsive as untrained and desparate staff couldn't figure out how to get him down.
The frantic efforts were detailed in a seven-page report from the state Health Department on the June 3 incident at the 196 bed Gino Merli Veterans Center in Scranton.
The facility "failed to ensure that nursing staff had the skills and competencies to assure resident safety," the report states, adding that the staff also lacked competency in handling emergencies."
The patient who suffered from dementia, diabetes and congestive heart failute had lived at the facility since 2015.
Officials of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which runs the Scranton facility, did not respond to questions about the incident including the outcome of the resident.
The report, based on interviews and reviews of videotapes of the 7:30 p.m. incident, states that the patient had been placed in the lift for transport to a bathroom and incontinence care.
"When staff members were lowering the lift the patient appeared to be turning red and became unresponsive," the report comtinues, adding that the lift had become wedged in the ceiling and ran out of battery power.
The state inquiry showed that the lift had an emergency button that would have allowed the staff to manually lower the patient but staff interviews showed they were unaware of the button, which was wedged in the ceiling and inaccessible.
"They had tried desparately to operate the lift, but failed," the report states.
After 10 to eleven minutes when another employee figured out how to release the lift the patient was lowered to the floor.
The report does not state whether the patient was able to be revived.
In a plan of correction officials of the facility said staff was being re-educated on the operation of the 10 lifts at the facility. The re-education included written tests and physical demonstrations.
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