A harrowing video captured the moment a young girl’s arm was caught in an elevator door — and the hero New Jersey doorman who responded to the scene said the sound of her screaming alone got him to run up seven flights of stairs to help rescue her.
Zoe Garatziotis, then 5, was en route to the pool at 1450 Washington at Hudson Tea in Hoboken with her mother and siblings in July when her arm was violently sucked into the elevator door shaft, video from inside the lift obtained by WABC showed.
Doorman Manny Batista told The Post that he heard Zoe’s screams from the front desk, seven flights away.
“I ran up all seven flights of stairs and I was hearing screams the whole time,” he said Saturday.
“It was very scary because I have kids of my own, so I know the scream of hurt, of pain … I know the difference between pain and fun [screams]. She was in pain,” Batista added.
“I had to run up the stairs to stop the elevator, to put the key in and shut down the elevator so that it didn’t keep going up and down.”
Zoe’s mom, Loni Garatziotis, told WABC that the adults struggled to hold the door still while also trying to yank the little girl free.
“Me and my friend Jen grabbed the elevator so it wouldn’t pull her in more and my friend Nicole was in there with her trying to figure out how to get her arm out,” she recalled.
One of the adults tried to free Zoe by lathering her arm in hand sanitizer, to no avail.
After a harrowing three minutes, a neighbor came by with hand lotion, which finally helped ease Zoe’s trapped arm out of the door.
“She put it on her arm and then she opened it and she pulled her arm free luckily,” Loni explained.
When Zoe’s arm was finally free, Batista provided some on-the-spot first aid while the family waited for EMS and police.
“I took my shirt off and gave it to the mom so she could wrap her arm. Then I had two cigarettes after because it was so nerve-racking,” he said.
“The little girl, she was fine, like, she was very brave. If it was me, and I’m an adult, I would’ve been crying like a baby, like, oh my God! But she was pretty calm afterwards,” he added of Zoe’s stoic demeanor.
Zoe, whose family lived in Hoboken before moving to Florida, ended up getting 12 stitches on her wrist, which required weekly wound care at the hospital for three months after the injury, her mother told WABC.
Nearly one year later, the youngster has a large scar as a reminder of the freak misadventure.
“It’s pretty rugged, it’s pretty big and it’s something that we deal with on a daily basis,” Loni said of the mark.
“She wants to cover it, it doesn’t feel good, it’s sensitive.”
The family is now suing the building’s owner company, Taylor Management Company, and Kone Elevators and Escalators, WABC reported.
“If you look at where the door goes in, it’s a really small gap, it can fit a couple pieces of paper, that’s how it should have been, the gap was too big,” attorney Edward Capozzi told the outlet of the negligence suit.
Zoe’s parents are seeking compensation for their daughter’s ordeal, and would also like to use the incident to encourage elevator operators to add more warning signage about potential dangers.
Taylor Management and Kone Elevators did not immediately reply to The Post’s request for a comment on the case.
Residents at 450 Washington at Hudson Tea — a well-heeled building where former Giants quarterback Eli Manning once lived and condos regularly sell for over $1 million — told The Post that Zoe’s injury made them worried for their own safety.
“I have two young granddaughters, so this really scares me,” said Zoe Farahani, 65, who has lived in the building for 22 years.
“I’m already paranoid when I’m in the elevator with them, like, stay in the corner, don’t touch anything, just be careful,” she added, noting that the building never even informed the tenants about the elevator accident.
“The building should have to tell us about something like this. We all have kids and if there’s something wrong they should let us know. This is the first time I’m hearing about this. I’m shocked,” Farahani lamented.
A 50-year-old woman who has lived in the building for 12 years agreed, calling the incident “terrifying.”
“I hope that the building has talked to the engineers or whoever is in the charge of the elevators here to fix the problem,” she said.
