A Richmond-based appliance installation man is being credited a hero after he inadvertently discovered a helpless senior on a home delivery in Surrey.
Charles Ferraby’s family reached out to Peace Arch News this week to publicly thank Han Appliances for the way its employees, and in particular Fernando Solano, responded to the Sept. 18 incident.
Solano told PAN this week that nothing was out of the ordinary that day, he spent the morning phoning clients preparing for product delivery and installation.
Ferraby, 85, was one of Solano’s clients to receive a call, but the phone was never answered. Ferraby was scheduled to have a new microwave installed in his house that day.
Usually, Solano said, when a call goes unanswered he lets the office manager know and an appointment is rescheduled. The officer manager made several calls to Ferraby to no avail.
“For some reason, I had this feeling that I should just go there anyways,” Solano said.
“I knocked on the door, no answer. I rang the bell, no answer,” he said.
Solano said he saw a vehicle in front of the house, and his suspicion that something wasn’t right started to intensify.
“I thought there has to be somebody home. I looked in by the window and I saw his feet, just laying down on the ground. I got nervous and knocked louder – there was no movement. I knocked even louder and I’m yelling, then his foot moved. He was trying to get up, so that’s when I called 911.”
Solano helped firefighters find entry into the house.
“We saw a window. So I went to my truck, grabbed my tools and took out some screws so we could climb through the window,” Solano said.
Ferraby’s daughter Linda McKinley, who lives on the Sunshine Coast, told PAN this week that her father had been lying on the ground for two to three days before he was rescued.
“Once he got to (Peace Arch Hospital) he was totally dehydrated. He was really sick,” McKinley told PAN. “It was close. He was extremely ill and he’s just now starting to feel better and they’re looking to release him.”
McKinley said her father’s knees were scraped and bleeding because he had been dragging himself around the house, but was unable to get to phone.
“It’s up on the counter and when he’s on the floor in the dark, I guess he couldn’t find (it).”
McKinley spoke to Solano briefly after the incident. She said her father is expected to be release from hospital sometime soon.
“‘Thank you’ are two simple words – and we want to shout them as loud as we can. Charles Ferraby and his family cannot say thank you enough,” McKinley emailed to PAN.
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