Woman Trapped by Elevator Tells Her Tale

January 9 was a normal Sunday for Carolyn Buechler. In the morning, she and her husband attended 7 a.m. mass at St. Matthews, as they always do. A few hours later she went down into the basement, into her craft room, to do some sewing. 

Because she has prosthetic knees and hips, she took the elevator down. 

After she did her sewing, she went into the guest room, so that she could go back up in the elevator. For the first time, the elevator malfunctioned: the door opened even though the cab wasn't there. The cab was up on the main floor. The lights were out in the guest room, and Buechler didn't notice that the cab was upstairs. 

"I went to step into the elevator and instead I fell into a pit. I fell down about a foot below the level of the floor. I sat down on my butt and banged on the door, calling for my husband. He thought I was caught in the elevator, so he pushed the elevator button, hoping the elevator would return upstairs, with me inside. Instead the elevator came down. I thought I was going to die. I didn't know what to do."

So she quickly got on her back and without thinking, flexed her knees and put her hands up.

"It was lucky that I did that because when the elevator met resistance, it stopped about a foot above my face. 'Call 911!' I yelled to my husband and he did," Buechler said. 

Before she knew it, her home was packed with rescue workers. The first to arrive was her neighbor, volunteer firefighter Joey D'Alesandro.  

"He laid on the floor next to the elevator and talked to me, calmed me down. His was the face that kept me going. I told him, 'You better get a priest' and he said, 'No, you have me." she said. He and some other firefighters put pieces of wood under the cab, to shore it up. 

"They got the elevator up a few inches, and then were able to get a backboard under me and got me out. I was bruised a little bit but that was it," Buechler said.

"The whole thing was incredibly amazing," she added. "I am very claustrophobic. I go into hysterics in MRIs. But I stayed completely calm. A friend who is a psychologist told me I went into protection survival mode. Those were incredible people outside the hole. What a well-run operation. I am so thankful. They were wonderful."

Buechler was well enough to return to work the very next morning, in the Cold Spring Harbor school district, where she has been a speech pathologist for 28 years. 

"The Dix Hills Fire Department is a wonderful group of incredible men and women. And to think they are all volunteers! I am just thrilled that I am still around."