Sonali Banerjee, who was stuck inside a lift at RG Kar Hospital with husband Arup and four-year-old son Ayush on Friday morning, recalled on Saturday the sequence of events leading to her husband’s gruesome death.

Here’s her first-person account:

We were waiting outside the operating theatre on the first floor when my son suddenly said he wanted to go to the washroom. I wanted to go to the washroom, too. As my son’s arm is fractured and he had to be carried, my husband accompanied us.

We stepped into the elevator. Instead of going up, it started to move down. It came to a halt in the basement. There was no light and we were stuck inside for some time.

Suddenly, the lift door opened. We thought it would be better to step out as there was no guarantee when the lift would open again (if the doors closed a second time) and we may be stuck inside. We were not carrying our phones. So we thought we should step out.

However, there was a locked grille gate in the lobby right outside the lift in the basement. We came out of the lift and placed ourselves in the narrow space between the grille gate and the lift door.

We started to scream for help so someone would hear us and open the gate. But no one came.

We stood there for a long time.

My husband remarked that it was fortunate he had decided to accompany us to the washroom, else I wouldhave been alone in that situation with our son, who was very young and carried an injury.

After some time, the lift door closed behind us by itself. My son and I were standing close to the grille gate but my husband got stuck between the doors of the lift that had closed suddenly.

As the lift started to move upwards, my son and I fell into the lift shaft. The lift dragged my husband upwards with it. At that moment, my biggest fear was — what if the lift came down again? It would crush both me and my son. We were inside the shaft directly under the lift.

I pushed my son and managed to place him in the space where we had been standing earlier — between the lift door and the grille gate. At least he would live, no matter what happened to us. I was screaming for help throughout. But no one came.

Suddenly, my husband, who had been squeezed between the lift and the wall above us, fell on me inside the shaft. He was covered in blood and was gasping for air. I could see the lift moving further up at that stage.

Finally, someone came and opened the grille gate. We were allowed to come out through the gate. By then, it was too late for my husband.