Firefighters rescue 93-year-old woman who was stuck on toilet for several days

A 93-year-old woman has beenrescued from her own toilet at a senior-citizen apartment building in North Philadelphia after being stuck there for days, a Fire Department official said. The woman, who was not identified, lives at Tioga Presbyterian Apartments, an independent-living facility for senior citizens, according to Dan Magee, spokesman for Presby's Inspired Life, a nonprofit developer of affordable housing for seniors, which runs the building.

Magee said the woman was last seen by another resident on Sunday. Yesterday morning, her representative at the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging called the building's service coordinator after she was unable to contact the woman for a scheduled phone call. The representative and the coordinator went to her apartment and found her sitting on the toilet.



Magee said she appeared to be asleep but had not fallen off. At about 10:55 a.m., firefighters were called to get her out. The woman said she had been stuck on the toilet for two or three days. Each apartment in the building is equipped with a long emergency cord in the bedroom and bathroom that is connected to a 24-hour security-guard station, Magee said.

The woman never pulled the cord, which was within her reach from the toilet, Magee said. The cord was checked and found to be operational. After the woman was extricated from the toilet, she was taken to Temple University Hospital and was in stable condition.