Yeah, I realize this is a pretty long in the tooth title, but I tend to play older games and just dug this one out again and hit a weird problem which I now remember dogged me before -- think I only got passed it once.  I'm hoping someone has some familiarity with it and can give me a hand.

What happens is, I play through the game to the point where Freeman takes the large elevator to the surface. He opens the door, goes inside, pushes the button, and the elevator starts rising making elevator noises.  However, part way up the next scenario loads at which point the sound becomes all helicopter, the elevator stops moving (still down in the shaft I think), the red damage flares start showing, and the heath meter starts dropping.  Very quickly he's dead and yet there's no visible attacker, the elevator door hasn't opened and I'm stuck.  I've tried "Esc"aping the game at that point and then continuing, but it didn't work.  This is the Valve CD box release from way back (Platinum Collection).

If anyone can give me a hand, it sure would be appreciated.