It sounds like the start of an old joke “two nuns in Rome enter a lift…” but there was nothing funny about this story that saw two poor nuns getting stuck in a lift, for three whole days, without food or water, in Rome. The women, a 68-year-old from New Zealand and a 58-year-old from Ireland, were visiting the Marist Sisters’ convent when an electrical fault trapped them inside the lift for an entire weekend. It was unfortunate that neither of the women was carrying mobile phones and they were alone in the convent, meaning their cries for help went unanswered.
What makes the story even worse is that, as temperatures reached 34C in Rome, the ladies were forced to drink their own urine to stay hydrated and conscious! They were only discovered on the Monday morning when a cleaner came to enter the building, rang the bell, got no reply and rang the police. Thankfully both women are absolutely fine after receiving treatment in hospital.
We’re not sure how old the lift system was in the convent, but every property owner or manager of a building had a duty of care to all its residents and any visitors, which includes thorough lift maintenance to ensure the safety of said lifts. Proper lift maintenance is crucial to the smooth running and operation of any lift system and it needs to be done by a verified lift company.