CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia woman in a wheelchair who had been stuck on the top floor of a four-story hotel for 42 days is finally able to go outside.
Joy Patton, a disabled woman in a wheelchair, had been stuck on the fourth floor of the Woodspring Suites Extended Stay hotel, which had not had a working elevator since April 10, which is the last time she had been outside.
The Pattons said hotel’s local management told them their room rate would rise from about $600 per week to more than $1,000 per week after they called Nexstar’s WAVY.
They thought it was retribution for calling the media.
WAVY contacted the hotel’s corporate management in Richmond and was assured by Jim Darter, president and CEO of Sandpiper Hospitality, that “the rate is and will remain, according to our current records, at $58 per night. Our rates did not indicate any of the rates you mentioned in your e-mail.”
He added: “Our offer to relocate Ms. Patton was not accepted according to our local team, and she continued to pay for her place on the 4th floor. … We would be more than happy to re-accommodate Ms. Patton to another floor of the hotel if that would be her preference.”
Joy Patton said she and her husband, Matt Patton, were never offered a first-floor room.
“I don’t know what they’re telling Mr. Darter, but we were never offered a first floor,” she said. “We asked about a first floor for us, and they said nothing is available. … We were offered nothing by the local management.”
WAVY also confronted the current hotel general manager, Lakeisha Biggs, asking if there was any way to get the Pattons to a first-floor room.
Another staff replied, “No comment.”
Said Biggs at the time: “We are working on that.”
When WAVY was on the property Thursday, Biggs was not seen, and another man on the property who did not identify himself asked the reporter to leave, not taking a copy of Darter’s email.
About the elevator, Darter wrote Wednesday night: “The parts arrived recently, and the substantive work began yesterday and is expected to be completed tomorrow [Thursday]. So we expect full service back tomorrow [Thursday] night for all our guests.”
True to his word, Darter was correct, and the elevator came back online Thursday morning before the predicted time.
After hearing the elevator was operational again, Joy Patton threw her arms up, happy, and said she was ready to go outside again.
“It works, oh my gosh. I’m out of my room,” she said. “April 10, I’m out of the ‘friggin’ room. I’m off the fourth floor.”
“I’m finally outdoors. Freedom finally,” she said as she rolled out the door, pushed by Matt Patton. “I feel like I got my freedom back. Opening windows is not good enough, you got to get out of the walls because they were closing in on me, and I can breathe now.”
“This is the happiest I’ve been in a long time,” she said. “This is the most joy I have felt in a long time.”
She said Wednesday was their anniversary.
“Getting help to get things resolved is the best anniversary present we could ever have had,” she said, “and we thank you. You are amazing. Thank you so much. … I don’t feel like a vampire anymore. I can finally come out in the sun.”
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