After a fall from my hoyer lift, I reached out to Lift and Transfer to schedule an inspection for…read moreApril of 2025. The owner of the company, Craig Coogan, came to my apartment late and smelled strongly of alcohol. He was visibly under the influence. My caregiver was going to be off her shift, and I let him know. He aggressively insisted that she put me in the sling, because I weigh 130lbs and that should not have happened. I told him that my next caregiver was on her way to my apartment. He insisted that I should get in my hoyer lift again. While we were waiting for my next caregiver to arrive, he stated that he works with everyone in the Bay Area for Lift and Transfer and has been doing this for 28 years, and then said for 25 years a few minutes later.
My next caregiver came in, and I was put in the hoyer lift and raised up as high as I could go. There was nothing underneath me, and my caregiver stated that she wanted me to be in my wheelchair while we discussed options. Craig declined, said I was safe, grabbed the sling, pulled it hard, and shook it back and forth. As a reminder, I had fallen out of the sling because one of the straps came off the hook. He then put his hand on my upper leg close to my vulva and my shoulder without asking for consent. He left it there for roughly 3 minutes. As a disabled woman who cannot physically defend herself, this caused alarm because there was no reason to touch me. Also, because he seemed drunk, I couldn't predict what he was going to do.
He would ask my caregiver to adjust the sling and then proceed to do it himself in a rough manner without asking for my consent. He was aggressive when telling my caregiver she was doing it wrong when she stated that she did manual transfers. She stated that we preferred it that way with her, because she can pick me up. If he had come at his scheduled time, then my previous caregiver, who uses the hoyer lift would be able to show him how she uses it. He would not offer different solutions for how my caregiver could transfer me. It got to a point where they got into a verbal argument, and I had to raise my voice at him to tell him that he is not here to discuss this. I was then put back in my wheelchair.
My caregiver stated she has another client with a different hoyer lift that might be a better solution. He kept pushing her to tell her who it was because he had been working with everyone for 25 years. She was hesitant to tell him because she did not want to violate client privacy, and then he stated again that he had been working in this company for 28 years. After that, he gave her his card so she could send him a picture of the hoyer lift.
Afterwards, he was drawing a map of my room to demonstrate other options for hoyer lifts while my caregiver was doing work around my room. He would not move out of the way when she politely asked him to move multiple times to where she had to squeeze behind him and brush against his body. He would not acknowledge her. When he drew his map of my room, it did not make sense of what he wanted to do. He had this idea of putting the hoyer lift in the ceiling, which I stated I was not comfortable with. He gaslit me by telling me that it was fine and I had to tell him that my ceiling would not be able to hold a hoyer lift with the poorly designed ceiling in my apartment. He then continued by suggesting putting me in a hoyer lift that could put me further down in my bed. When I told him that I would not want that, he then suggested putting me in a hoyer lift where I could park my wheelchair in the hallway. This did not make sense because my staff would not be able to safely get me out of my chair or bypass my wheelchair to get me to the bathroom on my commode chair. His next suggestion was to park my wheelchair facing the wall. This would not make sense because my caregivers would not be able to put the straps from the sling on the hooks safely. I stated that it wouldn't feel safe doing it. He then suggested, again, placing the hoyer lift in the ceiling and parking my wheelchair in the hallway. It had become more obvious that he could not think logically due to being under the influence.
Afterwards, I walked him out of my room, where my caregiver was cleaning dishes. He kept talking to her about how she should not be manually lifting me and mumbling that it wasn't safe for her back. He then tried to give her his card again. At this point, I understood that he would not leave without me forcing him to leave. I had to walk him out of my apartment building to make sure that he was out of the building. I did not feel safe until I knew he was out of the building. Not only was I concerned for my safety, but I am still concerned for the clients that he continues to work with.
