A caregiver has been fired from her job after a disabled woman was found to be left in a hot car with the windows rolled up.
The incident took place in Maple Ridge on Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of the No Frills on Dewdney Trunk Road.
Maple Ridge resident Carrie Kline was visiting No Frills around 2 p.m. and looked over at the car beside her as she was parking.
“It was overcast and humid, very hot,” she said. “I pulled in my parking spot and as I was parking I looked to my right and I saw a girl, in a car, in the backseat, sweating, like her hair was dripping with sweat. I got out of my car and I went right to their car and tried to open the doors and the doors were locked. And the windows were completely shut.”
Kline then asked the woman beside her, who was loading up her groceries, how long this other car, a two-door Civic, might have been there.
This other bystander didn’t know, but she grabbed a Gatorade from her groceries and the two of them tried to entice the girl to open the door. In the meantime, Kline called 911.
“The girl, she was very slight, slender, she looked to me, I thought she was 16 at the time but I later found out she is 29,” she told Global News.
“I know that she is special needs, I’ve worked in the industry for about 30 years. I can just tell.”
Kline said the caregiver came out while she was on the phone to 911. Kline asked her if this was her car and she said yes.
“I’m like ‘what are you doing? Get her out of the car’,” she said.
Kline said she asked the woman who she was and she identified herself as the girl’s caregiver.
“She said ‘she can’t go out in public, she has OCD and autism’,” added Kline.
It is not known how long the young woman was in the car before Kline arrived but she said she was there for a few minutes before the caregiver came back.
Fire, police and ambulance responded very quickly to the scene and Kline said the girl was given Gatorade, water and the air conditioning was turned on in the car.
Kline said she was there for a few minutes before the caregiver came back out to the car. She added the caregiver then offered to turn on the air conditioning in the car.
“Everybody did what they needed to do, they were amazing and she went via ambulance for a medical assessment,” said Kline.
The caregiver’s employer, Pacific Coast Community Resources confirmed to Global News the caregiver was immediately terminated.
“We have spoken with her family and they are fully aware of the situation and support our actions in this regard. Their wish now is for the family’s privacy to be respected,” the company said in a Facebook post.
Kline said she was horrified by the incident.
“I still don’t even have the words,” she said. “I’m disgusted, who does that?”
In the wake of the incident, Community Living BC, the separate Crown agency that cares for and assists people with developmental disabilities sent an “extreme heat” letter to its own caregivers reminding them to take extra steps to protect people in their care.
“This is a reminder that during extreme heat it is important to take extra precaution to prevent heat-related illness, particularly for those who may be more vulnerable to these conditions such as the elderly, people on certain medications and those with respiratory conditions,” reads the letter.
“We hope that everyone takes the time to ensure that the people you are supporting, understand how to recognize that they may be overheating and that they need to stay in the shade, drink plenty of fluids and wear lighter clothing and take care to do things like closing drapes during the daytime to block the sun.”
Comments