A Montreal family says their 89-year-old grandmother will never be the same after she was left lying injured in the parking lot of a Walmart for over an hour.
Dorothy Baker was heading to the big box store on Jean-Talon Street on Jan. 11 to do her weekly shopping when she slipped and fell just behind her car, a few metres from the front door.
Passerby Milan Sharma, who was at the store with his family, witnessed the fall and rushed to help her.
“I wanted to see if I could give her a hand and see if everything is OK,” he tells CTV News. “She was in quite some excruciating pain.”
Sharma says he and a few others did their best to make her comfortable, and then he went into the store to ask for help.
“I went into the Walmart to notify them that there’s a woman right here that fell down right in front of their door, almost,” he said. “They just asked me if I called 911. I said, ‘Yes.’”
Sharma says he went back inside another two times to ask for help and additional blankets.
“I thought for sure they would come out to do something because it’s in the parking lot,” he said. “Somebody could drive right by her or not see her, and it could be a big accident.”
Sharma says Baker also asked him to call her grandson, Jonathan Labow Hart, and his husband, Simon Fauteux, who were at a nearby bank.
“He said, ‘We’re at Walmart. We’re trying to stabilize her, but we can’t lift her. We got her down on the ground where she fell, and we got some blankets covering her. She’s not in great shape,’” Labow Hart recalls.
The couple rushed over to find their matriarch collapsed, Good Samaritans surrounding her in an attempt to keep her warm in the sub-zero temperatures.
“She was so vulnerable,” said Labow Hart. “To see her like that, I broke down and I cried because she’s helpless.”
They say they went into the store to, again, ask for help.
“Not one manager came out to see if she’s OK. Not one staff member,” said Labow Hart. “Their accountability was zero.”
Additionally, it took paramedics almost an hour to arrive.
When they did, Baker was rushed to the Jewish General Hospital to undergo surgery for a severely shattered hip.
She remains at the Catherine Booth Hospital for extended rehabilitation.
The family says they complained to the big box store, speaking to both the store manager and regional manager, but only heard back after CTV News intervened in Baker’s case.
“The only reason they contacted us after playing games with us for weeks and weeks is because apparently you did call them,” Labow Hart said.
In response to CTV News' request for an interview, Walmart Canada states, “We’re aware of the incident and are very sorry to hear a customer was injured in the parking lot.”
The company continues, “While we’ve been in touch with their family, given that this is an ongoing matter and out of respect for all parties involved, we cannot provide further comment.”
The family says they are still deciding what they want to do in regards to potential legal action.
“They need to be held liable for their actions, for what they did and how they did not try to make a serious situation better for her,” said Labow Hart.
Fauteux adds, “We’re wondering why didn’t Walmart just come out to assess the situation and put a barrier around her?”
They say the most heartbreaking development since the fall is Baker’s lost autonomy; once vibrant and free, she can now barely walk, will have to move into an assisted-living facility and is highly dependent on those around her.
