Four days without food: S’pore woman stuck in penthouse toilet
When she ended up trapped in her windowless bathroom, Ms Yang only had water from her tap for sustenance and caught whatever sleep she could get while seated on the toilet bowl.
The 31-year-old Singaporean, who declined to reveal her full name, was unable to call for help during her four-day ordeal as she did not have her cellphone with her.
“I’d just quell my hunger pangs with water, which I had plenty of,” she said.
Ms Yang, who has been living alone in her two-storey condo penthouse near Beauty World in Bukit Timah for the past year, told The Straits Times that a few days before she got stuck, she had noticed that the door handle in the six-year-old house felt a little loose, but brushed it off.
On Nov 24, the bathroom’s door handle dislodged and dropped off after she pulled it shut for a shower. She continued with her shower and realised she was trapped when she could not get it to open.
Worry had not set in then. “I message my parents every day because they are in China, so they will notice if I disappear, and I know that they will take action,” she said.
But it turned out to be a long wait for help.
Over the next few days, she would knock on the bathroom door loudly, especially in the early morning, hoping someone would notice. “But no one did,” she said, adding that she would knock harder whenever she heard the doorbell ringing.
In between her attempts to free herself, she said she would think about her family and work, as well as future solutions to prevent a similar problem from reoccurring in the future.
Her spirits would go down a little whenever she heard her pet parrot singing outside.
Her lucky break came when the police went to her apartment to investigate her disappearance.
In a Facebook post on Dec 29, Senior Staff Sergeant Ibnu Musalli and Sergeant Miqdad Fisall recounted how they had responded to a call for help from Ms Yang’s relative on the evening of Nov 27.
Her relative was worried since she was uncontactable for the past four days. When he went to her apartment to check on her, he had gotten no response, and her mobile phone had been switched off as well.
When the two officers arrived at her estate, neighbours told them they had not seen her for days either, while delivery parcels were left strewn outside her house.
Sgt Miqdad said as he and his colleague were speaking to neighbours, they noticed a faint rapping sound coming from the other side of the wall.
With the help of a security guard, the officers gained access into her apartment and forced the bathroom door open. They then passed her a towel and some clothes.
“When I heard the officers’ voices, I felt very thankful and moved,” said Ms Yang, who added that she has written a thank-you note to them.
Paramedics who arrived soon after checked her condition, and after she was given a clean bill of health, she immediately called her parents – who had sent her more than 40 messages – to tell them she was safe.
Her first order of business after that was to get some food – a bowl of hotpot noodles which she ordered in.
She eventually plans to put a spare cellphone in the bathroom or use a smartwatch so she can contact someone if she ever gets trapped again.
“But for now, I don’t fully close the bathroom door any more,” said Ms Yang.
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