An 83-year-old man in Nanaimo, B.C. is being treated in the hospital after a neighbour who was concerned for his wellbeing called police to get an officer to check on him.
Nickie Wilson has been Bob’s neighbour for more than six years, and the two regularly exchange books and play crib together. Bob lives alone, she said, and has no family.
On Dec. 15, Wilson said she left some Christmas goodies on his doorstep, and when she noticed them sitting there five days later, decided to call the RCMP.
“I knocked and phoned and he didn’t answer, so I got really concerned,” she told Global News. “He’s been getting sick lately and I just noticed I hadn’t seen him for a while.”
Mounties responded to Wilson’s call for a wellbeing check on Monday.
An officer visited Bob’s apartment, and peering through the window, saw Bob “lying motionless on his bathroom floor,” police later said in a news release. The officer forced open the door and called paramedics.
“He was critically injured,” Const. Gary O’Brien said in an interview. “He remains in critical condition.”
O’Brien said Wilson and the officer’s actions may have saved Bob’s life, as he could have been in medical distress for up to five days.
The detachment receives about 400 wellness-check calls each month, said O’Brien, and they’re treated as priority calls.
Wilson said a few residents of their housing complex died during the COVID-19 pandemic, and had been in their homes for several days.
She’s a medical receptionist and has worked in care homes, and said she’s been checking in on a few of the seniors and delivering baked goods.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal,” she said of calling the police for Bob. “I would hope someone would do it for me.”