Senior man Turns to Ted after AC outage at his daily dining facility

Sarah Rafique Image
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Senior man Turns to Ted after AC outage at his daily dining facility
When he couldn't get the air conditioning fixed at his senior living center's dining facility, a Spring man Turned to Ted.

SPRING, Texas (KTRK) -- Earlier this year, Terry Worshek and his neighbors at a senior living community noticed mealtime was a little too warm.

When the air conditioning went out in the dining hall at Paradise Springs, Worshek said the staff told him it would be fixed in five days.

"It would've been wonderful," he said.

But, five days passed and he said nothing happened. When another week passed, Worshek said the company told him they were trying to find the parts to fix the broken AC.

The air conditioning in the residents' room was still working like normal, but since meals are included in his monthly payments, Worshek said he and many of the elderly residents enjoy spending time together eating in the dining area.

"People were bringing in their own little fans and fanning themselves with menus. Whatever they had to do to try to keep cool," he said. "It was warm. In fact, one of the ladies that lived on the first floor even brought her own floor fan, plugged it in right by where she was sitting."

About a month into the outage, Worshek Turned to Ted.

We asked the living facility about it, and two days later, the team at Paradise Springs began taking action.

"By that Friday, all of a sudden, out of the blue, showed up seven cooling units for the dining room," Worshek said.

The company's regional vice president told us when we first reached out that "ensuring the comfort and wellbeing of everyone who lives and works in our community is our highest priority."

About a week later, Worshek said a crane showed up to replace the AC unit, but the crews were still missing a part.

The company stayed in touch with us, saying, "We are doing all we can to get the new unit installed as quickly as possible with the state of the supply chain."

A week later, the AC was finally fixed. In all, Worshek said it took about three months.

"It was definitely the action from your department, because we got no action here as far as going to management, asking them," Worshek said. "I don't think that anything would've happened near as quick as it did had I not contacted your office, and I'm going to say this on behalf of all the people that live here: We thank you very much because (being) without air conditioning, especially at our age, and especially in these situations, is not a tolerable situation."

When it was all fixed, Kaitlan Faubion, regional vice president of Holiday by Atria, which oversees the facility, told us, "Paradise Springs' new air conditioning unit to serve the dining room and atrium was installed on May 26 and is working well. The air conditioning units, which power other common areas and resident apartments, were not affected by this repair and continue to function as normal. We are always committed to our residents and to making our community a great place to call home."

SEE ALSO: Freeport mom Turns to Ted after air conditioning stopped cooling

A Freeport mom Turned to Ted after her AC stopped cooling during what went on record as the hottest July in Southeast Texas.

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