HYDERABAD: A disturbing incident occurred on Sunday when four individuals were trapped for over two hours inside an elevator at Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) with a dead body. The deceased, Atta Muhammad Soomro, had died in an accident, and his relatives were transporting his body from the surgical ICU building to the ground floor when the elevator malfunctioned.
While the hospital management claimed that the elevator door was opened within 23 minutes, witnesses and those involved in the situation stated that it took nearly two hours for staff to free the trapped individuals. During this time, the people inside the elevator repeatedly called family and friends, who rushed to the hospital, while also knocking on the doors in an attempt to get attention.
Doctors and hospital staff made several attempts to open the elevator doors, but all efforts were unsuccessful until the hospital’s technical team arrived and finally broke open the door. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, explained that the key to open the jammed doors should have been readily available to the technical team. An inquiry committee has been formed to investigate the incident, and the company that installed the elevator has been asked to conduct an inspection. LUH is the largest public sector teaching hospital in Hyderabad, with a branch in Jamshoro.
