A 59-year-old man entered a lift at the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, to meet a doctor last Saturday afternoon.
He then remained stuck in it until Monday morning, when a lift operator found him. Mr Ravindran Nair is now in hospital, being treated for dehydration and back pain, reported the Press Trust of India.
The Thiruvananthapuram resident told local media that when he stepped into Lift 11 – meant for patients and visitors – to head up to the second floor of the hospital, there was no one else in the lift. “But the light was on, so I didn’t think anything was wrong,” he said.
He pressed the button and the lift began ascending but, as it neared the second floor, it lurched downwards with a thud and got stuck between the first and second floors.
When he got trapped, Mr Nair tried calling the emergency number listed in the lift but there was no response. He also tried calling his wife Sreelekha, who works at the hospital, and “anyone else I could think of”, but the calls wouldn’t connect.
“I began panicking and started banging on the lift doors to attract attention,” he told the BBC. “That’s when my phone fell on the floor and stopped working.
“I shouted and screamed for help and tried pulling apart the doors with my hands. It was now dark inside the lift, but thankfully, there was sufficient air to breathe.”
He then paced around the lift, pressing the alarm bell again and again, hoping it would ring and catch someone’s attention – but with no success.
“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 said.
At some point, he remembered he had to take pills to keep his blood pressure under control.
“I had them on me, but couldn’t swallow them because I had no water and my mouth was dry from shouting for help,” he recalled.
“I started wondering whether I would die inside the lift. I worried about my wife and children and thought about my late parents and ancestors. But then, I somehow willed myself to be stronger and told myself that I had to overcome this frightening ordeal.”
One thing that gave him comfort, he said, was reciting poems written by his wife. “I held on to the hope that someone would come along to repair the lift and find me there.”
Help finally arrived on Monday at around 6am when an operator opened the door – 42 hours after his ordeal began. Once Mr Nair was rescued, the first thing he did was call his wife, reported NDTV.
His family members initially thought he was at work, but later contacted the police and began a desperate search for him.
Mr Nair’s son Hari Shankar said his father was pretty shaken as he had been inside the lift for almost two days.
The incident made headlines in the state, prompting the health department to suspend two lift operators and a duty sergeant.
Officials from the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, and the state’s health minister have apologised to Mr Nair.
