Hospital patient dies after being stuck in broken elevator

A hospital patient in Iowa died on Sunday after being trapped in a defective hospital elevator for three hours.

The woman, identified as 34-year-old Tamela Sims, was being taken from the hospital's emergency room to intensive care at 3 a.m. when the elevator malfunctioned in between floors at the Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames, Iowa. It was unclear if the three hour elevator ordeal led to her death, according to the Associated Press.

Sims's mother, Linda Sims, told the media that her daughter weighed more than 500 pounds and was claustrophobic, and she questioned why the hospital staff never called when her daughter was trapped. "If there was a malfunction, I think it should be fixed so it doesn't take anybody else's life," she said.

But hospital officials say the estimated load in was well below the 4,000-pound weight limit when the elevator got stuck. The officials say Sims had access to medical help, equipment and supplies while she was stuck and was in stable condition when the elevator incident ended at 6 a.m.. The hospital says the elevator was last inspected in 2006, in compliance with Iowa law, according to AP.

The incident comes just weeks after a black woman died in a New York hospital when she collapsed on the floor of a waiting room and remaining on the ground for 45 minutes before hospital workers came to her assistance.