After the news spread that a woman was stuck in an elevator in the home of her employer for three days, the New York City community involved in the incident is speaking out
After the news spread that a woman was stuck in an elevator in the home of her employer for three days, the New York City community involved in the incident is speaking out.
According to local outlet NY1, the woman — who has since been identified as 53-year-old Marites Fortaliza, according to ABC News — did not have access to food, water, a bathroom or any way of contacting the outside world from Friday evening to Monday morning.
A video from local outlet NY1 that was posted to Twitter shows a man identified as a neighbor of Fortaliza’s billionaire employer telling reporters that “a human can last well over … 72 hours without water and seven days without food.”
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“So, what she went through wasn’t anywhere close to the limits of human endurance,” the man continued. “It’s just beyond what we’re used to because we’ve become so civilized we’ve lost touch with our true strength.”
Reps from NY1 did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
On Monday morning, the New York Fire Department received a call that a cleaning woman was stuck in the elevator of a private home in the Upper East Side, a department spokesperson said in a statement to PEOPLE.
According to CNN, Fortaliza, who lives in Queens, was discovered around 10 a.m. local time after a deliveryman showed up at the five-story townhouse and was concerned when no one answered the door. The homeowner — identified as Warren Stephens, president of investment bank, Stephens Inc. — was away for the weekend, CNN added. The deliveryman then called one of the homeowner’s relatives, who then called 911.
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After the fire department arrived on the scene, they forced opened the doors of the elevator, stuck between the second and third floors, and transported the woman “by EMS to [a] local hospital with non-life threatening injuries,” the FDNY said in a statement to PEOPLE.
“She was on the stretcher, she was unconscious I think,” a witness told ABC 7. “I don’t know her. I just found out that someone had been stuck in the elevator.”
ABC News reported that as of Monday afternoon, Fortaliza was still in the hospital in stable condition.