Sheffield housing: Blind 74-year-old woman trapped in lift with failed emergency button in council block

A blind Sheffield pensioner was stuck in a council lift for three hours when it failed and the emergency button did not work for her to raise the alarm.

Margaret Jaggard, aged 74, was stuck in a lift at block of flats in Sheffield without her phone or medication, from 11pm until 2am, with no working emergency button.

Her partner, Raymond Needham, lives on the 11th floor of Handbank block on Callow Mount, Gleadless Valley. He was staying elsewhere, and Margaret was picking up his heart medication to take to him when the lift failed.

Annette Sterland-Burton, Margaret’s daughter, said: "Mum said all she wanted to do was use the bathroom and have a cup of tea. She just sat in there on the floor. 

"When the fire brigade got to her at 2am, she collapsed into a fireman's arms. It had dropped just below ground level, so she had to do a big step out. I don't think they realised she was blind at first, but they helped as best they could."

A friend had gone with Margaret to Callow Mount, and was waiting for her after she went inside. He went looking for her when she failed to re-appear and eventually knocked on the lift door, and heard her say ‘I’m stuck’.

Annette added: "The reason dad wasn’t staying at home is because the wardens are hardly there. He’s 80, but some of the people on his floor are in their 90s. If there is a fire, how would they get out of there?"

The lift in the council housing block had been reopened four days previously, following a separate breakdown, and an engineer told Annette that the lift was "just too old," she claimed.

Annette said she was told by someone from the council that they are looking at the lift now, and considering putting a new system in place to monitor all the lifts across the council blocks.  She said he also confirmed to her that the emergency button had failed.

The council was contacted for comment last week, following the incident which took place on the night of September 13.