With the assistance of Commissioner for Human Rights in the Tomsk region Elena Kartashova an elderly woman who fell into a difficult life situation received help.

In August 2017 a resident of one of the apartment blocks of Tomsk applied to the Commissioner. The applicant said that an elderly woman lives in the next doorway on the ground floor of the house. For many years, a woman have been spending days standing at an open window, protected by metal bars, and looking at the street. According to the neighbor, people passing by the house make photos of an unusual woman on the phone, someone laughs, and someone sympathizes with her.

According to the neighbors, electricity and water supply have been cut off in her apartment for several years, probably for debts to public utilities. Residents of the apartment building repeatedly appealed to various authorities with requests to help resolve the situation, but the problem was not solved.

In early August, residents of the apartment building heard a quiet request for help. Through an open window the elderly woman told that the apartment lock is broken, and it was fastened without food and water. The "captive" did not want to open the door, because she did not have money to install than a new one. Several times a neighbor passed a bottled water and food to the woman through the window grilles, but one day she refused to accept help.

As a result, the ordinary problem that an independent adult person is able to solve in a short time turned into the situation that creates a real threat to life and health of the elderly woman.

After receiving the appeal, the staff of the Tomsk Commissioner’s office immediately sent the necessary requests, coordinated the actions of the interested structures. In addition, police officers managed to find distant relatives of the locked up woman. At the appointed time, doctors, a district police commissioner, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the relative invited by the precinct were gathered nearby her apartment. The representatives of the regional Commissioner’s office observed the development of the situation.

During the conversation with the precinct, the woman, who got into a difficult life situation, became trusted to the person in uniform, gave her consent to breaking the lock. When the door was opened, it turned out that she really could not open it from the inside and couldn’t leave the apartment. The exhausted elderly woman was immediately hospitalized in a hospital, and now her life is out of danger.

However, it is still too early to talk about a successful resolution of the situation. After receiving the course of treatment, the patient will return back to the usual lonely life without communal benefits. In this regard, Elena Kartashova prepared an appeal to the social services with a request to take the necessary measures for solving the problem of the further life of the elderly woman. The situation is under the control of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Tomsk Region.

Adapted from the press service of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Tomsk Region