A Vancouver teacher who uses a wheelchair has been trapped in her Gastown apartment for a week due to a broken elevator that’s still not fixed.
Shannon Elmer lost her ability to walk four years ago after an out-of-control skier slammed into her while she was snowboarding in Whistler, severing her spine.
After three months in hospital and nearly a year of rehabilitation, she was able to fight her way back to her classroom.
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But now, Elmer is unable to leave her seventh-floor home on West Pender Street, making her feel helpless once again.
“I used to look forward to coming home and relaxing in my apartment,” she said Monday. “But now I’m looking outside and wondering why I can’t go downstairs, or why I can’t set up a zip line and go to the mall across the street.
“It’s hard to call this home, because it doesn’t feel like it.”
Elmer says the problem with the elevator started May 27, when she found she was unable to make her way down to the lobby.
“By Wednesday I realized it would be a long stint,” she said. “I started to get a little stir-crazy. And that was day two.”
Five days later, and with report cards due to be issued to parents in two weeks, the teacher said she’s starting to miss what she loves the most.
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“It’s a pretty crucial time of year,” she said. “I need to assess my students and I can’t do that. I miss working — I love the kids. The kids love me. We work well together.”
But that’s not all Elmer is missing.
“I’m missing medical appointments. I have one tomorrow that I’ve waited three months for that I’ll have to reschedule,” she said. “I also have physiotherapy and exercise. Also socializing, just to keep me sane.”
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Elmer said she has a pet kitten that’s keeping her company, along with “a great group of family and friends” that comes by to visit and drop off groceries. But asking those and other people she relies on to climb seven flights of stairs makes her feel guilty.
“My nurse, my caretakers, they need to do that four days a week,” she said. “My medication is delivered, they have to do that too.
“I’m having to ask everyone to do things for me. I’m really independent and I don’t like asking for help if I know I can do it myself. But I need to, and it’s really frustrating.”
The building, dubbed “33,” was built in 2009 and is managed by Quay Pacific Property Management. The elevator itself is maintained by Schindler Elevator Corporation.
In a statement, Quay Pacific’s director of strata services Drew Grout said Schindler was contacted immediately after the elevator went down, but the company was unable to locate a motor locally and had to obtain one from Eastern Canada.
The motor is now being reprogrammed in the U.S. before returning to Vancouver.
A spokesperson for Schindler said they hope to be back on site with the new motor Wednesday.
Elmer said she was told by building management Monday they’re hoping the elevator will be fixed by June 7 — nearly two weeks after the problem started.
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“Why does it take two weeks for an elevator part to be fixed?” she asked. “I just wish the strata could have contacted other elevator companies, or maybe there should be spare parts on hand or something. I don’t get it.”
As she waits to return to her students once again, Elmer said she feels like she’s gone back to when the accident that changed her life first happened, and that same feeling of helplessness.
“I’ve worked so hard from my accident to get where I am today, and wanting to go back to work to teach these kids, that to have an elevator break down and not be able to get to work and teach them … to have everything ripped away from me again is heartbreaking.”
—With files from John Hua
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