A man from the southern Indian state of Kerala, who got trapped in a hospital lift for 42 hours without any food or water, has told the BBC he feared he would die there.
Ravindran Nair, 59, entered the lift to meet a doctor on Saturday afternoon – he then remained stuck inside until Monday morning, when a lift operator found him. He is now in hospital and is being treated for dehydration and back pain.
His family members initially thought he was at work, but later contacted police and began a desperate search for him.
The incident has made headlines, prompting the state government to suspend three technicians and launch an inquiry. Officials from the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, and the state’s health minister have apologised to Mr Nair.
Mr Nair told the BBC that when he got trapped, he tried calling the emergency number listed in the lift but there was no response. He also tried calling his wife Sreelekha CP, 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. That’s when my phone fell on the floor and stopped working,” he says.
“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 without any success.
Mr Nair said he began visiting the hospital regularly a few months ago after he fell in the bathroom and started suffering from back pain.
Credit: bbc.com
