Women stuck in elevator for 2 days

---

Two suburban Chicago women were trapped inside a broken elevator for two days, surviving on two cough drops and six aspirin until they were rescued.
Beata Bartoszewicz, 25, and her mother, Roma Borowski, who work as cleaning ladies, entered an elevator in an empty Niles office building two days before Christmas Eve.

After the elevator doors closed, the women discovered they were stuck on the first floor of the two-story building.

There was no response from an emergency call alarm, Bartoszewicz told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Neither woman had a cell phone or water and the building wasn't due to open until after Christmas.

The duo became dizzy from hunger and Bartoszewicz said they tried to pry open the doors.

"I was close to thinking I was going to die," Bartoszewicz said.

The women, Polish immigrants who live in River Grove, tried to sleep on their coats and used a corner of the elevator as a bathroom.

Bartoszewicz said her mother continually reassured her.

"She kept saying, 'We're going to be OK, and we're going to spend Christmas Eve at home,"' Bartoszewicz said.

Two days later on Dec. 24, an employee of the building, Grant Koster, happened to go to work. Borowski said she heard him talking on his cell phone. The women yelled for his attention and he heard them.

Fire crews freed the women an hour later.

Bartoszewicz said the moral of the story is simple: "Always take your cell phone with you."

---