In coma after lift shaft fall
The Star 14/10/2006

A YEAR Two pupil suffered a hellish fall after he slipped down a shaft from the faulty lift of a flat in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, Kosmo! reported.

S. Logeswaran, eight, broke his spine, hips and all four limbs after plunging 16 floors from Block F of the Taman Putra Permai flats.

He was rushed to the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, where he is in a coma.

The paper reported that 800 residents of the block had been living with the faulty lifts over the past four years.

Despite numerous complaints to the relevant authorities and the developer, the lifts continued to be in a poor condition.

Relating the events that led to the horrifying accident, the boy’s mother, K. Radha, said she had asked him to follow his cousin C. Ganesh, also eight, to throw away some household garbage.

She said she had advised them to use the stairs as the lift had not been working since noon that day.

However, she added that the boys saw someone get out of the lift and they too wanted to use it.

However, the lift got stuck in between floors, living a gap at the 16th floor.

The two children tried to climb out but only Ganesh succeeded.

Logeswaran slipped and fell down the shaft.

The boy’s father lorry driver S. Sivakumar, 28, said he was not at home when the accident occurred.

Berita Harian reported the plight of a family in Bagan Serai, Perak, who resorted to feeding two-year-old Diana Nurfitriah with tea as her parents could not afford to buy her milk.

As a result of the poor diet the child fell sick for a week.

Housewife Noraini Ahmad, 36, said her family had been in dire straits over the past eight months because her husband, former labourer Nek Ye Nek Akib, 45, was critically ill with cancer of the liver.

She claimed that the hospital discharged him as it believed “there is no more hope.” Noraini, who said they kept shifting homes to squat with relatives, also has a four-year-old son Amjad Shafie.