A New York University student missing since Saturday morning was miraculously rescued Sunday evening from a 2-foot-wide shaft in a downtown dorm building.Asher Vongtau, 19, was found about 5 p.m. wedged at the bottom of the narrow shaft between the NYU dormitory at 80 Lafayette St. and a parking garage, fire officials said. Rescue workers had to break through a cinderblock wall to reach the NYU sophomore, who inexplicably tumbled into the shaft from the roof of 17-story dorm. He was in serious condition at Bellevue Hospital.His family had been frantic. “My son is the most responsible kid in the world,” Vongtau’s distraught mother, Habiba Vongtau, told the Daily News Sunday night as she traveled by Greyhound from her Pittsburgh home. “So many thoughts went through my head: Did he get hit by a car? Did he get attacked? Was he lying somewhere hurt? It was just crazy.”
She said he suffered a fractured skull, pelvis and arm, as well as contusions to his lung and spleen. She spoke to him briefly on the phone after he was taken to the hospital. When firefighters reached Vongtau, they asked him his name and age, which he was able to tell them. “He was pretty weak, but he was able to say hi,” the mother said. “I asked, ‘Are you in pain?’ He said the he is, but it’s nothing he can’t handle.”
Fire Chief Joseph Schiralli said Vongtau was conscious and able to speak when firefighters reached him in the shaft after a laborious rescue effort. “We don’t know how he got there,” Schiralli said. “He was moving his arms. I asked him his name and his age and he told me.”
The drama started about 7 a.m. Saturday after a fire drill at the dorm, Lafayette Hall. “I was one of the last ones to see him,” said student Michael Yablon, 19. “He left my room at 7 a.m. Saturday. I texted him later that day, but he never responded.”
Yablon, who began to worry when he didn’t hear from Vongtau by Sunday morning, said he alerted security, and he and his pals went door-to-door in their dorm asking if anyone had seen Vongtau. “One kid said he saw him running up the stairs Saturday morning,” Yablon said.
Campus security found Vongtau’s cell phone on the roof and called police, who heard Vongtau yelling for help. He was finally freed from the shaft about 6:30 p.m. — some 36 hours after he apparently fell in. His father, Lulufa Vongtau, tweeted his gratitude for the rescue from his home in Nigeria. “@FDNY thank you FDNY that’s my son,” he said.
A New York University student missing since Saturday morning was miraculously rescued Sunday evening from a 2-foot-wide shaft in a downtown dorm building.Asher Vongtau, 19, was found about 5 p.m. wedged at the bottom of the narrow shaft between the NYU dormitory at 80 Lafayette St. and a parking garage, fire officials said. Rescue workers had to break through a cinderblock wall to reach the NYU sophomore, who inexplicably tumbled into the shaft from the roof of 17-story dorm. He was in serious condition at Bellevue Hospital.His family had been frantic. “My son is the most responsible kid in the world,” Vongtau’s distraught mother, Habiba Vongtau, told the Daily News Sunday night as she traveled by Greyhound from her Pittsburgh home. “So many thoughts went through my head: Did he get hit by a car? Did he get attacked? Was he lying somewhere hurt? It was just crazy.”
She said he suffered a fractured skull, pelvis and arm, as well as contusions to his lung and spleen. She spoke to him briefly on the phone after he was taken to the hospital. When firefighters reached Vongtau, they asked him his name and age, which he was able to tell them. “He was pretty weak, but he was able to say hi,” the mother said. “I asked, ‘Are you in pain?’ He said the he is, but it’s nothing he can’t handle.”
Fire Chief Joseph Schiralli said Vongtau was conscious and able to speak when firefighters reached him in the shaft after a laborious rescue effort. “We don’t know how he got there,” Schiralli said. “He was moving his arms. I asked him his name and his age and he told me.”
The drama started about 7 a.m. Saturday after a fire drill at the dorm, Lafayette Hall. “I was one of the last ones to see him,” said student Michael Yablon, 19. “He left my room at 7 a.m. Saturday. I texted him later that day, but he never responded.”
Yablon, who began to worry when he didn’t hear from Vongtau by Sunday morning, said he alerted security, and he and his pals went door-to-door in their dorm asking if anyone had seen Vongtau. “One kid said he saw him running up the stairs Saturday morning,” Yablon said.
Campus security found Vongtau’s cell phone on the roof and called police, who heard Vongtau yelling for help. He was finally freed from the shaft about 6:30 p.m. — some 36 hours after he apparently fell in. His father, Lulufa Vongtau, tweeted his gratitude for the rescue from his home in Nigeria. “@FDNY thank you FDNY that’s my son,” he said.
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