{"id":15,"date":"2026-05-20T19:09:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=15"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:09:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:09:54","slug":"frantic-good-samaritans-tried-to-save-donike-gocaj-who-screamed-im-dying-before-becoming-eerily-quiet-in-nyc-manhole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=15","title":{"rendered":"Frantic good Samaritans tried to save Donike Gocaj, who screamed \u2018I\u2019m dying\u2019 before becoming eerily quiet in NYC manhole"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Frantic good Samaritans desperately tried to rescue a screaming grandmother who fell down an open Manhattan manhole \u2014 with one even lowering himself down to see if she could grab his legs to pull herself out.<\/p>\n

Read more Ex-Cuba leader Raul Castro, 94, charged with murder, conspiracy to kill Americans in 1996 shootdown of humanitarian planes<\/a><\/p>\n

The witnesses sprang into action late Monday after seeing Donike Gocaj, 56, suddenly fall from sight down the 10-foot hole outside Cartier on Fifth Avenue late Monday \u2014 and hearing her \u201cscreaming that she was dying,\u201d recalled Carl Wood, who immediately called 911 after watching her fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy actually sat down on top of the hole and they tried to lower him into the hole,\u201d Woods told The Post of the tragically doomed rescue efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had tried to lift him down \u2026 trying to get her to grab his legs,\u201d Woods recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she was too far down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other witnesses frantically ran to their cars to get anything they could use to get Gocaj out of the uncovered Con Edison maintenance hole, located near 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, as they anxiously waited for first responders to arrive.<\/p>\n

One person even \u201cgot a ladder\u201d \u2014 but it was \u201ctoo short\u201d to reach the screaming grandma, Wood recalled.<\/p>\n

EMS arrived \u201cin just a couple minutes\u201d but \u201cthey couldn\u2019t do anything, so they just got a stretcher and put it by the hole,\u201d Wood said of the harrowing scenes.<\/p>\n

Firefighters arrived moments later, but \u201cby the time they arrived on the scene, I didn\u2019t even hear her screaming anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

They removed her from the hole less than half an hour later, he said.<\/p>\n

Gocaj, a mom and grandmother from Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County, was taken to New York-Presbyterian\/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. <\/p>\n

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has yet to determine her cause of death.<\/p>\n

Wrappers for burn sheets used to cover burn victims were still visible on the ground Tuesday morning, hours after the tragic incident.<\/p>\n

Gocaj plummetted about 10 to 15 feet into the open manhole after stepping out of her parked Mercedes-Benz SUV around 11:20 p.m. Monday in front of the flagship Cartier store. Wood said there were no cones or barriers around the hole at the time.<\/p>\n

While the fall wasn\u2019t that far, Wood said it seemed like it was incredibly hot in the hole and that Gocaj appeared to be \u201cin a puddle of water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhen the FDNY was going down, they were wearing a mask. And when one of them came up, when he took his mask off, he was sweating a lot. So I know it was very hot down there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Con Edison said video footage shows that the manhole cover, which was found just feet away from the gaping hole, was dislodged by a truck just 12 minutes before Gocaj fell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reviewing the details, and while this is a rare occurrence, manhole covers can get displaced by heavy vehicles. Our thoughts remain with her family, and safety remains our top priority.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frantic good Samaritans desperately tried to rescue the screaming grandmother who fell down an open Manhattan manhole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro"],"yoast_head":"\nFrantic good Samaritans tried to save Donike Gocaj, who screamed \u2018I\u2019m dying\u2019 before becoming eerily quiet in NYC manhole - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=15\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frantic good Samaritans tried to save Donike Gocaj, who screamed \u2018I\u2019m dying\u2019 before becoming eerily quiet in NYC manhole - 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