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Wheelchair-using renter feels 'trapped' by apartment stairs

Posted at 4:06 PM, Nov 13, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-13 21:10:49-05

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AURORA, Colo. — An Aurora woman says she feels “trapped” in her apartment. Health complications led to her leg needing amputation, so now she’s in a wheelchair, and says the three concrete steps outside her front door are limiting her access to the outside world.

“I sit in this house and I get more and more depressed,” Debra Pylant told Contact7.

Pylant is diabetic, and a bad infection prompted the need for the amputation of part of her right leg. When she first moved into her first floor apartment, she was able to manage up the steps using a walker. Now, she says it’s impossible.

“Sometimes I don’t go out for a couple weeks. And I’ll say to someone I’m getting cabin fever but there’s no way to get me out,” she said.

Contact7 reached out to the apartment complex, Conifer Creek, and their corporate office. A spokesperson responded by saying, “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We were unaware of this matter. We will be reaching out to the resident to determine their circumstances to try and accommodate the resident.”

“For someone who pays their rent and does everything they’re supposed to do no questions asked, there should be some accommodation made,” her caretaker, Keli Davis, said.

“I just want to be able to do whatever, get out there and do whatever, by myself,” Pylant said.

Contact7 will follow up with the apartment complex regarding any changes made as a result of this story.