bloodrayne
01-14-2007, 02:27 AM
68 Year-Old Was Dead In His Shower For Four Days
Overflowing water from the Ebenezer Tower apartment has forced other residents from their homes for up to three months.
Minneapolis, Minnesota - On Christmas Day, a 68-year-old man died taking a shower in his 19th-floor apartment in south Minneapolis.
His body wasn't discovered for four days.
And the water kept running all that time, the drain blocked by the man's body. The water overflowed into the walls and carpets of the apartments below, all the way to street level.
The flooding forced nearly three dozen elderly residents to relocate from the Ebenezer Tower Apartments. They could be out as long as three months from their homes as water and mold damage is repaired.
"I've been around a long time, but nothing like this has ever happened," said Mary Beth Davis, director of Ebenezer's Minneapolis campus.
Dorothy Felstead, 88, has lived in the building at 2523 Portland Av. S. for almost nine years and was forced to another apartment because she lives 13 stories directly below the one that flooded.
"All of us came here to spend the rest of our lives," said Felstead, a retired legal secretary. "And this is affecting so many people. I don't want to criticize, but this has been terrible, just terrible."
Davis said Ebenezer officials have scrambled to find adequate housing for displaced residents, while keeping others in the 191-unit building apprised of the situation. Those displaced are in vacant apartments in the building or in other Ebenezer facilities, she said.
For a few days immediately after the discovery, a few were put up in a nearby hotel.
Ebenezer, a unit of Fairview Health Services, offers various senior housing options, ranging from nursing homes to assisted-living facilities. This high-rise is considered "housing with services" (in its case, some food services) and as such, is not directly licensed or overseen by state regulations, as nursing homes are, said state Health Department spokesman John Stieger.
Hennepin County also does not oversee the building's operation, a spokesman said, and the city's only oversight is in the form of a rental license required of all landlords, said housing inspection supervisor Janine Atchison.
City records show the building was in compliance with its most recent inspection, which occurred about a year ago, she said. "Nothing in the code would preclude something as bizarre as this, and it's really, really bizarre," Atchison said.
Police records show that an officer came to the building shortly after 6 a.m. on Dec. 29 after residents reported the man's death.
Neither police nor Ebenezer identified the man.
No specific cause of death was determined, beyond "natural causes," Davis said.
Although deaths in senior housing aren't unusual, she said the delay in finding the man was uncommon.
"Generally, something like that is discovered sooner, but the running water apparently masked the odor," Davis said.
Overflowing water from the Ebenezer Tower apartment has forced other residents from their homes for up to three months.
Minneapolis, Minnesota - On Christmas Day, a 68-year-old man died taking a shower in his 19th-floor apartment in south Minneapolis.
His body wasn't discovered for four days.
And the water kept running all that time, the drain blocked by the man's body. The water overflowed into the walls and carpets of the apartments below, all the way to street level.
The flooding forced nearly three dozen elderly residents to relocate from the Ebenezer Tower Apartments. They could be out as long as three months from their homes as water and mold damage is repaired.
"I've been around a long time, but nothing like this has ever happened," said Mary Beth Davis, director of Ebenezer's Minneapolis campus.
Dorothy Felstead, 88, has lived in the building at 2523 Portland Av. S. for almost nine years and was forced to another apartment because she lives 13 stories directly below the one that flooded.
"All of us came here to spend the rest of our lives," said Felstead, a retired legal secretary. "And this is affecting so many people. I don't want to criticize, but this has been terrible, just terrible."
Davis said Ebenezer officials have scrambled to find adequate housing for displaced residents, while keeping others in the 191-unit building apprised of the situation. Those displaced are in vacant apartments in the building or in other Ebenezer facilities, she said.
For a few days immediately after the discovery, a few were put up in a nearby hotel.
Ebenezer, a unit of Fairview Health Services, offers various senior housing options, ranging from nursing homes to assisted-living facilities. This high-rise is considered "housing with services" (in its case, some food services) and as such, is not directly licensed or overseen by state regulations, as nursing homes are, said state Health Department spokesman John Stieger.
Hennepin County also does not oversee the building's operation, a spokesman said, and the city's only oversight is in the form of a rental license required of all landlords, said housing inspection supervisor Janine Atchison.
City records show the building was in compliance with its most recent inspection, which occurred about a year ago, she said. "Nothing in the code would preclude something as bizarre as this, and it's really, really bizarre," Atchison said.
Police records show that an officer came to the building shortly after 6 a.m. on Dec. 29 after residents reported the man's death.
Neither police nor Ebenezer identified the man.
No specific cause of death was determined, beyond "natural causes," Davis said.
Although deaths in senior housing aren't unusual, she said the delay in finding the man was uncommon.
"Generally, something like that is discovered sooner, but the running water apparently masked the odor," Davis said.