Elderly Woman With Alzheimer’s Climbs Down Residential Building

A woman on the phone in front of a high-rise residential building. (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images)

An elderly woman with Alzheimer’s was rescued, uninjured, after climbing out the window of her 14th story residence, all the way down to the fifth floor.

The 84-year-old woman, who was not named, descended the building by holding on to ladder-like structures that support air condition units, according to multiple media outlets. The incident occurred at a residential building in Chengdu City, China on April 25.

The Descent

The property manager of the building said the elderly woman stayed at home because she has Alzheimer’s disease.

Since the weather was hot that day, the woman wanted to get out of the house. But she was unable to open the door because her family members locked it when they left for work, according to Chinese news outlet ThePaper.cn.

She then crawled out of a window in the bathroom, and began her descent.

Employees and residents at the building gathered on the ground floor below her with a bed sheet pulled taut, in case she fell.

Other residents shot cellphone footage of the woman climbing down the building as she held on to ladder-like structures. One man said that she took her time, according to ThePaper.cn.

“The firefighters came to rescue her, and she had already gone down to the fifth floor,” the property manager, surnamed Zhou, told Red Star News. “The resident on the fifth floor quickly opened the window, and she was pulled inside.”

After rescuing the elderly woman, the employees gave her food and water.

The family members then came and took her home.