Man Found Alive 5 Days After Fall In Seattle Elevator -- He's Critical After Being Found In Shaft

Donald Robinson Wood, missing since early Sunday morning, was found alive today at the bottom of an abandoned elevator shaft in a Pioneer Square building.

He had been there five days after he apparently fell five stories down the shaft and an elevator car.

Wood, 27, was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center after suffering a collapsed lung, a dislocated hip, a broken bone in his back and internal injuries, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Wood's mother, Brenda, said from Harborview this morning, "I think I'm numb. I'm not worried for the first time in five days.

"Whatever is wrong with him is a lot better than what we've been thinking for the past five days," Brenda Wood said.

Her son was found shortly before 9 a.m. today by Ray Holm, a missing-persons detective with the Seattle Police Department.

When he found Wood, Holm first thought he was dead, Brenda Wood said. But then he saw some fingers move.

"Rob?" Holm asked the motionless man, "Yeah, man," came the reply Brenda Wood said.

Holm asked the injured man, "How long do you think you've been here?" Brenda Wood said. Her son told Holm, "A couple of hours."

Doctors at Harborview have since told Brenda Wood that in another 24 hours her son would have been dead. "His vitals signs were just on the borderline," she said.

Her son's fall was broken somewhat by a screen over the elevator shaft, Brenda Wood said. He fell five stories down the shaft and went through the elevator car's ceiling escape door.

Searchers had looked down from the roof into the same darkened elevator shaft six or eight times but could not see him, Brenda Wood said.

Today, Holm got the building owner to open the basement part of the shaft and found the missing man.

Brenda Wood praised the detective for not giving up on her son.

"Holm saved Rob's life," she said. "We would have never known what happened to Rob."

The Seattle Fire Department said Wood was found in the basement of the building at 206 First Ave. S.

Donald Wood, known as "Rob," was last seen in Pioneer Square early Sunday morning.

He went out with a group of friends last Saturday night, according to his mother.

The group had gone to Dutch Ned's, a dance and music club at 124 S. Washington St. and then went to a friend's apartment above the club.

Another friend then arrived at the apartment and, at about 1 a.m., noticed that Wood was not there. His friends looked for Wood without success and then went to an after-hours party where everyone had planned to meet later.

Wood never showed up.

Last Sunday night, Wood failed to pick up his mother at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. On Monday, he failed to show up for work at a graphics-design firm where he works as a designer.

Brenda Wood had said she had no reason to believe her son had run off or was in any trouble.

Police, who treated the matter as a missing person's case, interviewed his friends. The family has also hired a private investigator.

Family and friends had been distributing fliers downtown in the hope of finding out what happened to him.