For some time, a woman had known that her bathroom door handle was faulty but did not get it fixed. One afternoon when she went to take a shower, the handle fell off, leaving her trapped in there for four days.

No one was living with her in the two-storey apartment at the Nottinghill Suites condominium along Toh Tuck Road near the Upper Bukit Timah area. She did not have her mobile phone with her in the bathroom, which was located on the upper level of the apartment.

The 31-year-old, who gave her name as just Ms Yang, tried to pound, rake and throw a corrosive chemical at the solid wood door — in the hope that she could get out or someone would hear the noise, but it was all fruitless.

Speaking to TODAY on Friday (Dec 30) over the phone in a mixture of English and Mandarin, she said that she never gave up hope because she was confident her parents, who live in China, would find some way to rescue her.

Her four-day ordeal began on Nov 24 and her plight was made known on Thursday by the Singapore Police Force on its Facebook and Instagram accounts. 

Ms Yang declined to say what her profession is. She is a naturalised citizen who came from China 13 years ago and has been living in the condo apartment for a year.

She said that she keeps in contact with her parents daily on the phone and was certain that they would sense something amiss if they did not hear from her.

On how she managed her panic, she said that she remembered some words of wisdom from her father and what he said not only kept her calm, but drove away any thoughts of dying.

“He told me previously that a human can survive without food for three days, but not (without) water,” she added.

“I calculated. There’s water (in the bathroom) and air exchange. Based on my weight, I can survive many days.”

Ms Yang described herself as “a bit overweight”.

Her trust in her parents was rewarded when she was eventually rescued on the evening of Nov 27 by the police, who were alerted by her cousin living in Singapore. Ms Yang’s parents had reached out to the cousin to check on her.

THE FALLEN HANDLE

In retrospect, Ms Yang said that the incident could have been prevented, because she already knew for some time that the handle of the bathroom door in the eight-year-old apartment was loose.

However, since it was still functioning, at least up to that fateful afternoon, she felt that there was no need to get the handle repaired.

“I saw that it could still be used and, as I’ve been busy, I wanted to save myself the trouble of getting it fixed,” she said.

In the days that she was trapped in the bathroom, Ms Yang tried to find ways to get out of there.

First, she tried knocking loudly on the door, hoping the sound would capture someone’s attention.

When that failed, she used the metal door handle — it dropped on her side of the bathroom door — to batter away at the door frame on the second day.

She also tried using a pipe-cleaning chemical on the door because she thought its corrosive effects would make her endeavours easier.

“I started destroying the door very early in the morning, hoping someone could report me,” Ms Yang said, but she was ultimately unable to succeed in her efforts.

Over the course of the third and fourth day, she again tried to make some noise by banging on things.

She did it twice, when she heard a delivery worker arrive at her door on the third and fourth day, and when she thought she heard sounds from a neighbour’s television on the third night.

When asked if she was disappointed that her efforts were in vain, Ms Yang said that she was not.

“I never put much hope on them. I didn’t even know whether people could hear (the noise I was making) or not. I just grabbed the chance (whenever I could) and tried my luck.”

However, she admitted that she did not try shouting for help.

“My toilet has no windows. I felt that shouting for help would be very strange.”

When she was not trying to hammer away at the door or trying to grab someone’s attention, Ms Yang said that she spent the bulk of her time sleeping while sitting on the toilet bowl.

The waking hours, she said, were spent keeping her mind active.

This included thinking about problems at work and how she could solve them, and also how she could prevent herself from being in a similar situation again.

“Perhaps, I can put an extra mobile phone, with enough battery, inside the toilet... Or wear a smartwatch so that I can call for help,” she said.

Not once, however, did Ms Yang feel hungry.

“I had no urge to eat or the mind to feel hungry. The foremost thought I had was to get out.”

THE FAINT KNOCK

Ms Yang said that she was eventually rescued by the police close to midnight on Nov 27.

Senior Staff Sergeant Ibnu Musalli and Sergeant Miqdad Fisall, who gave an account on her case on the Singapore Police Force's Facebook page, said that they received a call from Ms Yang’s relative on Nov 27 because he was concerned about not being able to contact her for the past four days.

The relative, her cousin, had even gone to her apartment to check on her, but got no response.

Ms Yang’s mobile phone was also turned off, the officers said in the Facebook post.

The post was part of an editorial series by the police called "My Duty My Calling".

The police told TODAY that Senior Staff Sergeant Ibnu has been with the force for about nine years and Sergeant Miqdad has been serving for about two years.

Both are currently with Clementi Neighbourhood Police Centre's Ground Response Force.

Once the officers were at Nottinghill Suites, they made checks with Ms Yang's neighbours, who told them that they had not seen the missing woman for three or four days. They also noticed a few untouched parcels that had been delivered outside her apartment.

Senior Staff Sergeant Ibnu said: "Our instincts and experience told us that she might still be in her unit but in a condition where she couldn’t respond."

Their instincts were confirmed when they heard some faint rapping noises coming from the other side of the wall.

With the help of the building's security guard, the officers managed to gain access to the apartment and that was when they heard the faint knocking growing louder.

They eventually identified the source of the sound to be coming from Ms Yang’s bathroom.

After she was rescued by the officers, she was assessed by paramedics.

Ms Yang, who said that she was very appreciative of her rescuers, also said that the paramedics gave her a clean bill of health and there was no need for her to be hospitalised.

NO NEW DOOR HANDLE YET

With her ordeal over, one of the first things Ms Yang did was to order a hot-pot meal for herself.

She also quickly contacted her parents to let them know she was all right.

“I was so grateful to (my parents). I told them I really appreciated what they had done, so many times, and that I was so happy to have them.”

Rather than scolding her for not getting her door fixed, Ms Yang said that they were just anxious and worried for her because they were frightened by what might have happened to her.

Ms Yang said that she has yet to get her door fixed and will only get it done when she has more time, though she did not specify what has been keeping her busy. 

She said that she is now "a little bit scared" of closing doors and not being able to open them.

“I broke the bathroom door and now, it can’t be closed properly anyway, so I’m not that concerned.”

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by LOW YOUJIN

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