Woman suffering an asthma attack was locked inside urgent care as staff all left for the day
A New Hampshire woman says she was left inside an urgent care clinic while seeking treatment for an asthma attack.
Tia Chandler, 46, visited ConvenientMD Urgent Care in Keene around 7.45 p.m. on September 24, only for staff to close up while she was inside. Chandler said that she had been given a steroid injection by one worker, who said that they would return shortly. They never came back, she told WCVB.
“I knew that they were slammed at the end of the day so I was trying to give them some grace,” she explained to The Keene Sentinel.
On its website, the Keene-based ConvenientMD Urgent Care says that it remains open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., 7 days a week.
However, it was only at around 8:20 p.m. that she realized that she had been left alone.
Chandler says that she called 911 before leaving the urgent care, triggering an alarm as she tried to exit
As she left, Chandler says that she did not even see what she described to WCVB as a “skeleton crew” still inside the building.
“Very shocking,” she told the outlet. “Just like, I can’t believe this just happened to me, because literally when I was thinking in my head, sitting there at 8:10: ‘They would never lock me in there. That’s crazy talk. That only happens in movies or on a show, not in real life.’”
The Keene Police Department has confirmed that it responded to the incident. The Independent has contacted the department for further comment.
In a statement obtained by WMUR, ConvenientMD Urgent Care acknowledged the incident and said that a manager apologized to the patient.
“Clearly, this should never have happened and does not represent the quality of care we seek to provide the Keene community,” a spokesperson said. “The practice manager immediately expressed our deepest apologies to the patient.”
“We have taken steps to ensure this won’t happen again and we remain committed to providing the Keene area with the high-quality care we have been providing for more than a decade,” the spokesperson continued.
The Independent has contacted ConvenientMD Urgent Care for additional comment.
Chandler told The Sentinel that the clinic manager apologized to her via text message the same evening on which she was left inside the building. The clinic manager told her that they planned to investigate the incident.
