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.
“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 says.
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.
“On Saturday, my wife and I went to meet the doctor and I got an X-ray scan done of my back because I was experiencing severe pain after a recent trip,” he recalls.
When the doctor asked to see the results from his blood test, the couple realised that they had forgotten them at home. Since Ms Sreelakha had to report for work, Mr Nair went home to pick up the results.
Normally when he visits the hospital he and his wife use a lift earmarked for employees. But this time he stepped into Lift-11 – meant for patients and visitors – to head up to the second floor.
“It was just past noon then. There was no-one else in the lift but the light was on, so I didn’t think anything was wrong,” he says.
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.
He didn’t know then that his ordeal would last nearly two days.
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 recalls.
“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 says, 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 arrived finally on Monday morning at around 06:00 local time when an operator opened the door and asked him to jump out – 42 hours after his ordeal began.
Once Mr Nair was rescued, the first thing he did was call his wife, who had no idea her missing husband was trapped at her workplace.
“He wanted me to come and take him home,” she says.
The hospital has since put up a warning outside the lift asking people not to use it while it is being repaired.
