Trapped in your own home: no lift, no exit for people in wheelchairs

Imagine you're stuck at home and can't get out. Not because there's another pandemic and a lockdown has been imposed, but simply because the elevator isn't working. And now imagine that the whole thing lasts two weeks, i.e. 14 days, during which you are locked up, can't go to work and can't see anyone except your partner. Sounds absurd? For Aleksandra Kozak, this was the reality for a fortnight.

The 33-year-old is actually a lawyer at the European Commission, likes to dress nicely, wear make-up and meet friends. The problem: Aleksandra has been in a wheelchair for most of the time since 2020, lives on the third floor and can't go outside without an elevator. A mishap, which for others simply means lugging the shopping bag up the stairs, costs Aleksandra her freedom, the choice to move outside her four walls.

More than a simple breakdown

In 2013, the Polish-born woman was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that causes movement disorders, among other things. Until a few years ago, Aleksandra walked with the help of a walking stick, but since the Covid pandemic, her symptoms have worsened and she can barely walk without her wheelchair.

When the 33-year-old and her partner Nikolay Terziev wanted to go to her doctor's appointment on 22 January, the couple noticed that the lift in their building in Gasperich wasn't working. "But as it was too late to cancel the appointment, Nikolay carried me down the three floors, " explains Aleksandra. She herself weighs around 60 kilos, and her wheelchair weighs almost 20 kilos. Due to her illness, the lawyer is unable to help carry her, but hangs there limply, "like a dead weight". After calling the management of the homeowners' association that looks after the residential building, Nikolay met a technician from Otis, the company managing the elevator, on the same day to take a look at the broken lift. The "diagnosis": a replacement part had to be ordered from Paris.