Falling Door Breaks 90-Year-Old's Wrist At Manhattan Assisted Living Home, Lawyer Says

BATTERY PARK CITY, NY – A 90-year-old woman says she fractured her wrist when a bathroom door in her upscale Manhattan assisted living facility fell off its hinges and crashed down on top of her.

Then, after Beatrice Shapiro was put into a wheelchair to transport her to a nearby medical center, a distracted carer failed to apply a brake and sent the chair rolling toward a busy street, she said.

Her lawyer is now preparing to sue Brookdale Battery Park Living Solutions, a $9,325-a-month facility on North End Avenue in Battery Park City where the retired office manager has lived for about three years.

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Shapiro went to the bathroom on July 3, she said. As she opened the stall door, it came tumbling down on top of her, injuring her wrist and spraining her left ankle.

“It was a shock to the system,” she recounted. “When it happened, I wasn’t even sure what happened.

“It was a very negligent thing to happen and I’m lucky it wasn’t any worse, thank goodness. It could have been my head.”

She said she was put in a wheelchair to be taken a block away for medical care, but when an attendant left her outside the facility the chair started rolling toward the street. Shapiro said she managed to put her good foot down in time to avert a disaster.

"If something had been wrong with that foot, I wouldn't have been able to do anything," she said.

Shapiro’s lawyer Peter Gleason said the suit, that he expects to file in the coming days, is about accountability.

“Doors are not supposed to fall off their hinges and knock elderly people onto the floor,” he said.

Brookdale describes itself as “the nation’s largest provider of senior living options,” with more than 1,000 locations throughout the country.

Asked for comment, it did not address Shapiro's case.

But spokeswoman Heather Hunter sent a statement saying, "Our community is committed to a high level of quality in the care of our residents and we take seriously resident safety including appropriate maintenance and will address necessary building issues."

Lead image of Beatrice Shapiro courtesy Gail Freund.