If he doesn’t care bout the door panel, he can use a hole saw to cut out a circle (or razor blade, but be careful). From there, he can reach in and manually trip the mechanism and open it.
You should be able to find another door panel in a yard somewhere. You may want to check that before destroying the existing one. BUT…if it’s more important to get it opening/closing than looking good…heck, it’s 15 years old.