For 42 Hours, No One Knew He Was Stuck in an Elevator

Indian man was only rescued when an operator reported to work Monday
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 17, 2024 9:45 AM CDT
For 42 Hours, No One Knew Man Was Stuck in an Elevator
   (Getty Images / Sergey Granev)

A 59-year-old Indian man walked into an elevator to head to a doctor's appointment around noon on Saturday—and ended up in the hospital 42 hours later, when he finally exited the elevator. The BBC reports on Ravindran Nair's ordeal, which started when he found himself unable to exit the elevator after it got stuck between the first and second floors of the hospital in Kerala. He called the emergency number provided inside but got no answer; he repeatedly rang the alarm bell, apparently without notice. "I began panicking and started banging on the lift doors to attract attention. That's when my phone fell on the floor and stopped working," he says. The lights went out. He had no food or water.

"I shouted and screamed for help and tried pulling apart the doors with my hands," he says. "It was now dark inside the lift, but thankfully, there was sufficient air to breathe. As the hours passed, I had no idea whether it was day or night as it was pitch dark inside. When I got tired, I slept in a corner. I had to use another corner to pee and poo," he adds. His thoughts turned to whether he would end up dying there. His family, meanwhile, filed a missing person's report and even searched the hospital. No one knew he was stuck between two floors.

The Indian Express reports Nair was finally freed around 6am Monday when an elevator operator arrived at work. "According to norms, lift operators should bring down such elevators, open the doors and examine the chamber. But this didn't happen on Saturday," said an official. (More strange stuff stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X