EXCLUSIVE: NYU student who was trapped between buildings speaks out
NEW YORK (WABC) -- An NYU student who had to be rescued after he became trapped between two buildings in Lower Manhattan is speaking out for the first time 14 months after the harrowing ordeal.
It's an Eyewitness News exclusive.
Rescue workers had to breach a concrete wall to gain access to then-19-year-old Asher Vongtau after he was found wedged in an area less than two feet wide next to 80 Lafayette Street.
"It was the longest few hours of my life," he said. "But I was ecstatic when I heard someone else's voice, not just mine."
Vongtau spent nearly two days crammed in the space.
"I was right next to the wall, lots of dirt and debris around me," he said. "I was scathing at the wall trying to grab into something and pick myself up...that was the biggest thought, I can get up and walk out of this."
But he couldn't get out, and when rescuers finally found him, he had a severely fractured left arm and injuries to his pelvis and skull.
See Kemberly Richardson's full interview with Vongtau:
Vongtau is now filling in the blanks as to exactly what happened the night he and some college buddies had a bit to much to drink.
They were in a dorm room, when, at rough 7 a.m. on November 2, 2013, he made an incredibly bad decision.
"Walking out of the dorm room is that last memory, right before I woke up having blacked out the last few hours," he said.
Vongtau had somehow fallen several stories between the buildings, and for the next roughly 36 hours, he floated in and out of consciousness.
"I can't hear anything, but then it starts to rain when I was down there," he said. "And that was brutal."
By that point, Vongtau's friends had alerted campus police, who began a search with few clues.
Day turned to night and then back to sunlight, and on Sunday evening, someone heard his screams and spotted him. Firefighters had to drill through walls to get him out.
He admits that at first, he was embarrassed over what happened and has never been back to that spot. But with time, those feelings have eased. And so he agreed to take another look.
"Having survived that, I want to do something more with my life," he said. "And I'm excited to do that."
He also had nothing but praise for his mother, who he says stuck by side and had his back throughout the entire ordeal.
