Disabled woman locked in hot van

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Wednesday, June 25, 2003 | Michael Hasch

[Willie Green]

A mentally disabled woman was left alone inside a dark-colored van parked in the sun with the windows closed Tuesday while her caretaker was in a Shadyside tattoo parlor, city police said.

The 45-year-old woman, who police said is unable to speak and wheelchair-bound, was taken to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Oakland for treatment of heat-related problems, police said. She was released following treatment.

[Willie Green]

Totally irresponsible.

[Willie Green]

ping

[bedolido]

agreed! totally irresponsible.

[wideawake]

Very judgmental. What if you suddenly found out you needed a tattoo in the middle of a workday? Huh?

[martin_fierro]

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[mountaineer]

I saw this story on the news last night and was utterly appalled. Thank goodness for the employee of a nearby dry cleaning shop, who saw that the disabled woman had been left in the van with the windows up (it was about 87 degrees in Pgh. yesterday), and called for help.

[bedolido]

Very judgmental

I should've read to the bottom... got to angry. I didn't know it was for a tatoo. Sorry I was so judgemental. I will strive to attain a higher level of consciousness.

[Jesse]

Tragic...the wrong mentally disabled person was locked into the van.

[mountaineer]

A 45-year-old mentally challenged woman who suffers from cerebral palsy was treated for heat exposure after she was left in a sweltering van while its driver visited a tattoo parlor, Pittsburgh police said.

Police Cmdr. Maurita Bryant said a 21-year-old woman, who was not identified, will be charged with reckless endangerment and neglect of a dependent person.

At around 4:45 p.m. yesterday, Bryant said, the victim and the suspect, an employee of Community Options Inc., pulled into the Shadyside Plaza parking lot on South Highland Avenue. Community Options provides housing and job-seeking assistance to disabled persons as they move out of institutions.

Bryant said an employee at Shadyside Valet Co. dry cleaners noticed the van when it arrived. At around 5:20 p.m., Bryant said, the same employee stepped out of the building for a cigarette break and noticed the woman in the van. Bryant said the employee went to several businesses trying to locate the driver.

Ben Zehner, an artist at Immortal Tattoo, just across the street, said the van driver was there, having paw prints tattooed on her leg. [Oh, paw prints. That's excusable, then.]

Zehner said he didn't know the woman's name but believed she had had work done at the parlor previously. "She was sitting down talking on the cellular phone like nothing was going on," he said.

Bryant said after the Shadyside Valet employee was unable to locate the driver, she phoned 911. Paramedics entered the van by breaking the passenger window. At the time, the temperature was in the high 80s. The victim was treated and released from Mercy Hospital.

"It could have been much worse," said Bryant. "It's really great that the employee at Shadyside Valet did what she did."

post-gazette

"She was handicapped and mentally retarded... She could not pick up her head. All the windows were up. I tried to open all the doors on the van and all of them were locked. I was thinking about breaking the window, but the cops came and broke the window and got her out. They said it was like an oven in there -- had to be over 100-degrees.

"Even when you leave your family pet in the car, you crack the window if you're going for five minutes... she was probably in there for 40, 45 minutes... I'm glad I noticed." -- Katie Nordquic, Called Police KDKA

[GovernmentShrinker]

Yes, it's good she noticed and called, but it's a sorry commentary on our society that she didn't break the van window herself, but waited for the professionals to come and do it. An extra few minutes in a hot vehicle can be the difference between full recovery and severe brain damage or death.

[Henrietta]

"but it's a sorry commentary on our society that she didn't break the van window herself, but waited for the professionals to come and do it. "

Oh, come on, you really blame her for waiting, when the constant refrain from the police-types is to call them instead of taking the law into our own hands? She can't win, can she?

[VoiceOfBruck]

...the 21-year-old caretaker, a woman who works for Community Options of Pittsburgh,...

They spelled "worked" wrong. I hope.

[Badray]

The report that I saw said that she was just about to break the window when the police got there. What probably stopped her from breaking it sooner was the fear of being sued.

[ru4liberty]

What probably stopped her from breaking it sooner was the fear of being sued.

Or fear of a citation. The good samaritan seems to be under fire these days.

[Unknown Freeper]

Why can't they give the tatoo lady's name? She's over 21. What's that about?

[Eternal_Bear]

The caretaker told investigators that she went inside the tattoo parlor because of a problem with an old tattoo.

What kind of a problem? Was it spreading?

[redheadtoo]

I worked with the developmentally disabled for seventeen years and, unfortunately, have seen my share of abuse.

I got a call one day from a woman in the community saying that one of our clients was being left in a car in front of a house for more than two hours at a time. The address she gave was the home of one of my staff people. It took several days but I eventually caught the staff member abandoning her client while she was inside.

I pulled into her driveway and, without informing the staff person what I was doing, took the gentleman out of her car, placed him in my car and drove off.

She observed me taking the client and tried to call the office and defend her actions. But the boss was not willing to listen. She was fired at once.

[Badray]

" The good samaritan seems to be under fire these days."

WTF!?!?!

The inmates surely are running the asylum.