Hi flounder. Looking for advice regarding something that happened to me this morning. I need legal advice and also I need to know I'm not losing my mind!

I live in a very large multi floor luxury apartment complex. It's mostly occupied, and every morning the elevators are busy. It can be a long wait till a car arrives on my floor. 

When I was heading to work this morning, the elevator stopped a few floors below me. No big deal. It was a rare day when there were only two women and another man also on their way out for the morning. The doors opened on the 28th floor to a woman holding a large bird cage with a parrot inside. She was very distressed and hurriedly explained her parrot needed to go to the emergency vet, but its pair bonded mate had to go as well or else he could suffer in her absence. This was all yelled at me very suddenly as the woman pushed the bird cage into my hand, told me to hold the elevator, and rushed away, presumably back to her apartment.

The other man on the elevator (probably in his mid 50s) was extremely exasperated by everything. Before I had a chance to stop him, he pushed the door close button. I was stunned, holding a sick parrot, and I didn't know what to do. After a very awkward ride to the ground floor the other three people rushed out of the elevator leaving me holding the bird. 

I didn't know what to do, because I was also in a rush, and I assumed the woman upstairs would be anxious about where the parrot (named Eunice, I later learned) was. I decided to put the parrot back on the elevator unattended, assuming she would expect the bird to be in that specific car. I left for work and honestly stopped thinking about it after telling my coworkers about the bizarre event. 
No one seemed to think much of it besides it being another wild tale of luxury apartment living.

When I got home that evening I walked into a tornado. The front desk clerk held me in the lobby, and soon after the woman appeared, screaming at me that the bird had died in the interim and that I was responsible!! I immediately mentioned that the bird had been on its way to the emergency vet, and was clearly already experiencing major health issues, but she claimed that the elevator had gone up to the top floor and that Eunice had died due her lifelong struggle with vertigo. I guess she was a rescue.

On top of that her mate suffered such stress that he also expired a few hours later :(

She believes that I am responsible for BOTH of their deaths and that she should be compensated financially for her loss and the stress on her mental health. She screamed "I'll see you in court asshole!" before returning upstairs. The whole event was stressful and embarrassing, and a quick search of local parrot prices has led me to believe that I could be financially ruined if found liable.

Does anyone have experience with civil cases like this? Could I really be considered a temporary custodian of this birds life? I haven't been able to sleep for days. I'm  worried that I'll have to move into a smaller building. So tell me Flounder, am I the crumb bum creep??