Documents Detail Extensive History Of Elevator Problems At JPS Hospital

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The hospital elevator that crushed a nurse at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth in January may not be an isolated incident.

Documents obtained by CBS 11 show a long history of problems with the elevators at Fort Worth's taxpayer funded hospital.

"Passenger being crushed by elevator between 10th and 11th floor," the document states.

It's the only information in public records about the nurse crushed by an elevator at JPS on January 20.

The nurse was on elevator 29, one of over 40 elevators at JPS' main campus in Fort Worth's medical district.

In the days after the horrific incident, JPS publicly blamed the elevator company, Thyssenkrupp.

CBS 11 asked JPS to turn over public records they are legally obligated to share since JPS is a taxpayer run hospital.

Those documents show elevator 29, the elevator the nurse was injured in, trapped people at least five other times in the past 12 months. Service records note it was inspected for several days in May and August of 2018 after several people were trapped.

Aside from elevator 29, other elevators at JPS were riddled with problems, from violently shaking, to doors opening while the elevators were moving.

The records show at least 51 other times when people were trapped in JPS elevators. Some of those elevators were installed as far back as 1980. Most have had alterations to them in recent years.

The elevators carry patients, visitors, doctors and nurses to different floors.