Woman dies in elevator

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was a perfect storm of tragedy: A young woman with a congenital heart defect became trapped on an elevator during a power outage in New Dorp today, just inches from her sixth-floor home, and lapsed into unconsciousness.

Danielle Goldberg, 26, who was returning from a visit to the doctor and who was alone on the elevator, died shortly thereafter at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

Danielle Goldberg died at hospital.The outage at the Tysens Park Apartments on Mill Road this morning halted the elevator cab between floors five and six.

Panicked, Ms. Goldberg used her cell phone to call her mother at work, to let her know her heart was racing. Her mother tried to calm her, said her brother-in-law, William Marin, but by the time the elevator doors could be forced open, she was already unconscious.

Panicked, Ms. Goldberg used her cell phone to call her mother at work, to let her know her heart was racing. Her mother tried to calm her, said her brother-in-law, William Marin, but by the time maintenance workers succeeded in forcing open the elevator doors, she was unconscious.

Ms. Goldberg’s next-door neighbor, Patricia Sanchez, heard the commotion; she said the workers asked for someone to provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, so she stepped in and started CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive.

"Nothing was working. I was feeling for a pulse," Ms. Sanchez said. "I was praying she would make it through. I was just praying she would make it through."

from SILive.com