Nineteen-year-old New York University student Asher Vongtau was stuck between the walls of two buildings for over 36 hours before being rescued and taken to Bellevue Hospital on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.
Vongtau, who is now recovering in the hospital from a fractured skull, pelvis and arm, as well as contusions to his lung and spleen, was reported missing by friends on Saturday around 7 a.m. after a fire drill, according to WABC News. Michael Yablon, the friend who reported Vongtau missing said friends "went door-to-door asking people what they knew about him and one person told us that the last that they'd seen, he was headed up the stairs," Yablon told WABC.
The group of friends told the officer at the security desk they should check the roof, WABC reported. Vongtau's cellphone was found on the roof and was used to help find the student. Firefighters arrived around 5 p.m. on Sunday and it took about 90 minutes to free Vongtau from a tight space between a 17-story NYU dormitory building and a parking garage, the AP reported.
The firefighters went through the garage and broke through a cinder-block wall to give Vongtau oxygen while they tried to remove him from the space, the New York Times reported.
According to Joseph Schiralli, a deputy chief, the student was sleepy and delirious when firefighters reached him, the Times reported. A FDNY spokesman said the only way to get to 18-inch space where Vongtau was found was through the roof, according to WABC.
"We had an unconscious male stuck in between two buildings," the spokesman told WABC. "We had to breach a wall to gain access to get him out. We had him in serious condition and he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital."
John H. Beckman, a NYU spokesman said they did not know how the student became stuck in the small space, and said one of the school's security officers saw Vongtau before he spent the night trapped, the Times reported.
