Allegheny County Courthouse
PITTSBURGH – A driver for a Pennsylvania patient-transport company is accused of dropping a woman on the floor of her home and leaving her there.
Staff at the senior living community Ashton Commons in Wexford eventually found Greta Shaffer “screaming and bleeding,” a lawsuit filed last week in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas says.
Shaffer has since passed away, and her estate is suing zTrip and an unknown driver possibly named George over the alleged incident. It began when Shaffer was discharged from Wexford Hospital on May 7, 2025, after an overnight stay for dizziness.
Shaffer relied on assistive devices for mobility, and the hospital arranged for zTrip to take her back to her place at Ashton Commons. The driver, though, allegedly grew impatient while waiting for an employee of the facility to assist Shaffer back to her room.
He decided to take her back in a wheelchair, the suit says.
“Defendant John Doe attempted to transfer Ms. Shaffer from the wheelchair into her sitting chair in her room and dropped her on the floor of her room,” the suit says.
“Ms. Shaffer felt immediate pain to her right arm, wrist and head after having been dropped on the floor… After dropping Ms. Shaffer on the floor, Defendant John Doe abandoned Ms. Shaffer, and simply entered the elevator and fled Ashton Commons.”
The suit does not blame zTrip for Shaffer’s death a month later but accuses the company of negligence, saying the driver shouldn’t have attempted to transfer Shaffer from the wheelchair to the sitting chair.
He also should’ve let Ashton Commons staff know she was lying on the floor, it adds. It seeks compensation for injuries like lacerations, including one on her head that required staples, plus humiliation, loss of the enjoyment of the daily pleasures of life and impairment of general health.
Mark Troyan of Robert Peirce & Associates represents the plaintiff.
