Colleague watches in horror as doctor decapitated by hospital lift
A colleague was left traumatised after witnessing a doctor being decapitated by a lift in a horrific hospital accident. Hitoshi Nikaidoh, 35, was entering a second-floor lift at Christus St Joseph Hospital in Houston, Texas, when the doors abruptly closed, trapping his shoulders.
His head was severed as the lift ascended. A hospital worker witnessed the gruesome incident and was trapped inside the lift with the surgical resident's body for approximately 20 minutes before firefighters could rescue her.
According to hospital spokesperson India Chumney Hancock, the woman who saw the horrifying event was treated in the hospital's emergency room. Harris County medical examiners launched an investigation into the incident, and police reported that maintenance crews had serviced the lift earlier in the week.
The entire bank of lifts was shut down while the investigation took place. Dr Niakaidoh, originally from Japan, moved to Connecticut with his family as a child.
He graduated from the University of Texas-Houston Medical School in June 2003, following his father into the field of surgery. The investigation found that a single extra wire in elevator 14 was the cause of the tragic accident that killed Dr Nikaidoh, reports the Mirror.
If the lift had been correctly configured, only one wire, not two, would have been connected to one of the many controller studs in the elevator control system. This would have allowed the sensors to function properly and the victim would have been released unharmed.
However, the misplacement of the wire, which was identified as the main cause of Nikaidoh's death, was just one of several examples of negligent maintenance work on Elevator 14.
During his investigation into the lift, Chief Elevator Inspector Ron Steele from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation discovered no less than 22 code violations. The lift was also a month overdue for its annual inspection.
Fire House reported elevators and escalators cause approximately 30 deaths and injure around 17,100 people each year in the United States, according to data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Historical records attribute the construction of the first elevator to the ancient Greek engineer and inventor Archimedes. It is believed he created a basic design using hemp rope and manual power in the year 236 B.C..
Since then, the design and technology of elevators have evolved and while they are seen today as a relatively safe mode of transport, issues still sometimes arise.
According to Crieff Law Firm, it's estimated that only one in 12 million lift journeys encounter a problem. Even then, the majority of these issues are typically minor, such as sticking doors and unresponsive buttons.
The law firm highlighted that statistically, you are far more likely to be injured or killed by a slip and fall accident on a set of stairs than by a ride in a lift.
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