Case in Salzburg

“This sick man is living below human dignity”

Smell, garbage and dirt. Apparently, a sick person has to cope alone. The fire department used a turntable ladder to get into his apartment.

(Bild: zVg)

The fire department, police and ambulance service were called out in Salzburg to rescue a 56-year-old man from his apartment. He is a nursing case and would need a place in a home. But he doesn't get it - and not even care.

It was a pitiful sight for around a dozen people in Salzburg-Lehen on Tuesday. The landlord and the adult representative of a man wanted to check on the seriously ill man in a block of flats. Plumbers were supposed to repair water damage emanating from the apartment in question. Because they couldn't get into the apartment, they called for help.

Lawyer Hannelore Gassner-Heimerl was urgently looking for a place in a home for her client.

(Bild: zVg)

Only the fire department was able to reach the apartment on the third floor from outside using a turntable ladder. A firefighter found the tenant (56), who suffers from multiple sclerosis and incontinence.

"Our apartment is gone, nobody should live like this"
"He was lying on the floor and not moving, but was responsive and was taken to hospital. There was stench, dirt and garbage everywhere. It's beneath human dignity for someone to have to live like that. And our apartment is gone," says his landlord Johann Baumeister in horror.

There was stench, dirt and garbage everywhere. It's beneath human dignity for a sick person to have to live like this. And our apartment is gone. A few days earlier, the ambulance also took him to hospital - and brought him back the next day.

Johann Baumeister und seine Ehefrau vermieten die Wohnung, in der der 56-Jährige lebt.

How can that happen? The adult representative Hannelore Gassner-Heimerl says she is waiting in line. She has been informing the relevant facilities for months about how much her client's condition has deteriorated. "But he didn't get a place in a home. The homes are full, he's too young and only has care level 1, which is why he doesn't have any care," says the lawyer.

He didn't get a place in a home. The homes are full, he is too young and only has care level 1.

Erwachsenenvertreterin Hannelore Gassner-Heimerl

Bild: zVg

She filed a lawsuit for her client. He could soon get a higher care level. Then he could apply for a place in the (full) Gunther Ladurner Care Center, which focuses on multiple sclerosis. Why can such a case happen in Salzburg? SPÖ Social Welfare Councillor Andrea Brandner says that the man's age is not suitable for a municipal care home: "Because he is under 65 years old. There are also providers such as Diakonie and the Red Cross."

Brandner believes that a different care system is needed and that it is not just the city's responsibility. FPÖ state councillor for social affairs Christian Pewny has been criticized recently for the lack of care home places - because no home for the mentally ill is being built in the former Bolaring municipal old people's home after all. The SPÖ and the Greens criticized this, Pewny argued in an interview with personnel reasons. Around 500 home beds are blocked in the province due to staff shortages. The landlord says of his tenant's case: "Politicians should have made provisions for more staff a long time ago."