Twelve Diyawanna members getting trapped inside an elevator cage at the august assembly for 15 minutes made newspaper headlines the other day.  

While this story was becoming the main subject of discussion in the public domain, the former strongman disclosed a similar story where he himself was involved, to a group of visitors to his Wijerama residence the other day. The story was how Prof. GL, his personal physician, his security personnel and himself were trapped in a lift-car for 45 minutes at a leading hospital in a foreign country.  

When they failed to reactivate the lift, the hospital authorities had taken emergency measures like summoning security services personnel and even a fire brigade to the hospital.  The precious time ticked off as every bid made to reactivate the lift had failed. And fearing that those trapped inside the lift-car would die of suffocation, they had even taken action to supply it with oxygen.  

At long last, a lift expert who was summoned had managed to bring down the car to the ground floor, but the lift door remained locked.  So, they had got down workmen with a metal cutting machine, who had with great difficulty cut-opened the lift car-door, to bring out into the open the trapped group.  

The story remained unknown as the group decided to keep the incident a secret.  

Though the former strongman narrated the incident, he refused to reveal when and where they had to face the mishap, they say.