Indian man who went to hospital for routine checkup gets trapped in lift for two days

Ravindran Nair, 59, says he rang alarm and called emergency numbers but received no response

A man has been rescued after he was trapped in a hospital lift in southern India for two days, police said.

Ravindran Nair, 59, was visiting a hospital in Kerala with his family on Saturday when he went missing.

He was rescued on Monday after spending the weekend stuck inside the elevator of the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

Kerala’s health department said on Monday that three employees at the hospital had been suspended for negligence.

Mr Nair had gone to the hospital with his wife for a checkup but got stuck in the elevator while leaving.

"He got into the lift to go to the first floor but claims that the lift came down and did not open. He says he shouted for help but no one came. His phone was also switched off," police said.

The lift was reportedly stuck between two floors and Mr Nair’s phone fell and broke during his desperate attempts to call for help, police added.

He pressed the lift’s alarm button and called emergency numbers but didn’t get a response.

"I tried calling all the emergency numbers listed inside the lift, but no one answered. The alarm was sounded, but no one came. After some time, I understood that it was the second Saturday [a bank holiday in India] and Sunday the next day, and then I waited for help," he told the news agency Press Trust of India.

Mr Nair said he lost track of time inside the lift and it was only on Monday morning that an operator came for routine work.

“We both forcefully opened the door from both sides, and I jumped out of it,” he said.

His family had filed a missing persons case on Sunday after he did not return home.

His son, Hari Shankar, said his father was shaken up from the ordeal.

The state’s health minister Veena George has asked the hospital administration to conduct an inquiry into the incident.

“The director of Medical Education Department has been instructed to inquire into the incident of patient getting stuck in the lift at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College OP Block,” Ms George wrote on Facebook.

In 2023, a nine-year-old boy died after getting stuck in the doors of a lift at a residential complex in the national capital Delhi. The lift went up with the boy trapped between the doors, crushing him.