5,000 kids a year hurt in falls from windows

The number of children treated in U.S. emergency departments for falls from windows approached 100,000 between 1990 and 2008, says a study in the journal Pediatrics. The research shows that the number of injuries declined during the first decade of the study period, but has since plateaued.

«We still are seeing over 5,000 children a year treated in hospital emergency departments across the country for injuries related to window falls, said Dr. Gary A. Smith, study author and director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. «That’s 14 children a day. This continues to be a very common, important problem.»

Researchers studied data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The group monitors injuries involving consumer products, treated in emergency departments nationwide. Researchers divided data from almost 4,000 patients into two groups: 0-4 years and 5-17 years.

Boys were involved in more falls from windows than girls were. In addition, the younger children made up two-thirds of the injuries. The injury rate was highest at age 2.

«These are kids who don’t recognize danger – they’re curious, they want to explore and when they see an open window, they are going to investigate,» Smith said. «Kids at that age tend to be top heavy. Their center of gravity is up near their chest and so as they lean out of the window to see what’s going on, they’ll topple.»

Many of the young children experienced injuries to their head or face, and, often times, these led to hospitalization or death. On the other hand, children in the older group were more likely to have fractures to their arms or legs.

While a few children did fall from a third story or higher, many more fell from a first- or second-story window.

«What we’re finding is that most of these aren’t these really high-rise buildings,» Smith added. «These are just often homes or apartments that aren’t high-rise, where children live. This is a problem that extends to small towns and even rural areas across the country.»

He reinforces the message that a screen does not offer protection and should give parents no feeling of comfort.

Smith, who is a pediatric emergency medicine physician, offers the following advice for parents.

Parents of children younger than 5:
-Use window guards or locks
-Do not allow any window to be open more than four inches
-Move furniture away from windows so children cannot climb on it

Parents of children older than 5:
-Educate children and teens of the risk of climbing out of a window or jumping from it

The authors also note that the landing surface made a difference. The patients who ended up on a cushioned surface often fared better than those who ended up on a hard surface.

«Our focus should be on preventing the child from falling in the first place, but cushioning the fall can help,» Smith noted.

«If a child falls from a window and they land on bushes or a planted flower bed, that often is enough to cushion the fall so that they’ll end up with bruises or scrapes instead of a severe injury,» he said.

The study points out that great reductions were seen in New York and Boston after programs were implemented there to combat the problem. The programs involved education in the community and among parents. Window guards were also made available. In New York City, window guards became mandatory in apartments where young children lived.

«We know what works,» Smith said. «We need to now go out and implement that.»

Smith said there were limitations with the set of data, especially with fatality numbers, and therefore these numbers under represent the problem.

Teen Miraculously Catches Girl, 2, Who Fell from a Second-Floor Window in Viral Video

Feuzi Zabaat saved 2-year-old Dora Muhammed when she plummeted from a window in her building

A teenager is being hailed as a hero for catching a toddler who fell from an open window in Istanbul, and security cameras caught footage of the dramatic rescue.

According to the Independent, Feuzi Zabaat noticed 2-year-old Dora Muhammed dangling from a second-story window while he was out on a walk last Thursday. Video of the 17-year-old shows him pointing up at Dora hanging from the window as a passerby and children remain oblivious to the situation.

Zabaat continues to look around, seemingly in disbelief, until he reaches out his arms and catches Dora just a fraction of a second before she would slam into the ground.

“I was walking down the road when I saw a 2-year-old girl hanging from a window,” Zabaat told the outlet. “I walked closer to her, and as she fell I held on to her.”

Zabaat then cradled Dora in his arms as witnesses nearby ran over to them. Fortunately, Dora suffered no injuries, all thanks to her hero.

“I was walking from the top of the street toward the bottom,” witness Izzet Bayir said, according to the Independent. “I saw this man looking up. It caught my attention — ‘What’s happening?’ And I saw that this little girl was about to fall.”

“This lion of a person caught this child in mid-air and reunited her with her family,” Bayir continued.

10 Unbelievable Stories about Children Who Survived High Falls

1 Man Saves Two Different Babies from Building Window Falls on Two Separate Occasions

One thing is for sure, if you lived in Detroit in the 1930s and your baby jumped from a window, chances were that Mr. Joseph Figlock was going to be there to save the day!

In 1937, a baby fell from the 4th floor of a building, falling on a man who was passing below. One year later, exactly the same thing happened — another baby, another 4th floor window, same man.

Street Sweeper Joseph Figlock was furbishing up an alley when a baby plopped down from a fourth-story window and struck him on the head and shoulders. Figlock and the baby were injured but not killed. But just like the man who was struck by lightning seven times, one year later, as Figlock was sweeping out another alley, two-year-old David Thomas fell from a fourth-story window and, you guessed it, landed on Figlock with the same results.

2 Baby Survives an 8-story Fall in His Mother’s Arms After She Jumps to Her Death

In March 2013, a distraught Manhattan lawyer strapped her 10-month-old son to her chest and leaped to her death from an eighth-story window in Harlem — and the baby miraculously survived with little more than scratches.

Cynthia Wachenheim, 44, who left an incoherent 13-page suicide note castigating herself for being a bad mother, landed on her back after taking the fatal plunge. Baby Keston was in a harness. He bounced off his mom on impact and then rolled away from her motionless arms.

Neighbor Steven Dominguez, 18, was walking to a grocery store with his mother, Adelina Dominguez, when he saw the woman fall. When he approached Wachenheim on the ground, he saw the baby crying on the sidewalk.

3 Woman Catches a Two-Year-Old Girl After a 10-Story Fall and Both Survive

In 2011, Wu Juping, a young mother from Hangzhou, a city in east China, saved the life of two-year-old Niu Fangyu, who fell from the 10th floor of a building, by catching the baby in her bare arms.

The accident happened while Niu’s grandmother was running errands outside. The little girl woke up from her nap and her grandmother was nowhere to be found. She then climbed onto the windowsill, probably trying to find her.

A neighbor from the opposite building saw Niu’s body hanging out of the window and a resident from the 9th floor tried to reach Niu by using a ladder, but failed.

Wu Juping rushed across the street just in time to catch Niu as she lost her grip on the windowsill.

The emergency room doctor ruled out injury to Niu’s head or neck, but said that she may have suffered internal bleeding in her abdomen. The brave 32-year-old lady, who became a mother seven months ago, injured her arm.

Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, the company where Wu works, also called Wu a «heroine» in his micro-blog, and the company declared that it would give Wu 200,000 yuan ($30,940) as an award for her good deed.

4 Baby’s Miraculous Rescue after a Fall from a Skyscraper Caught on Camera

In 2013, a two-year-old girl fell from the fifth-floor window of her home in east China’s Zhejiang Province, but luckily she was saved by a group of motorcycle couriers who noticed her on the window’s ledge mere moments before she plummeted.

Five express mail carriers were taking a morning break in the Geshuiyang village of Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province, when they heard the crying of a little girl who was sitting on a fifth-floor window ledge.

It is believed the young girl had woken from a sleep and climbed out onto the window sill still disorientated.

The couriers rushed over and stood under the window. Just as they started to discuss how to save the girl, she fell. Fortunately the men were there to catch her and save her life.

As seen in surveillance footage, the men managed to cushion the fall.

Although the girl does hit the ground after slipping through the men’s hands, the impact was significantly reduced and the girl was able to stand just after the incident.

5 Toddler Survives After Falling 20 Feet Out of a Window

In July 1023, 23-month-old Leo Fernando escaped a 20-foot fall out of a first floor window onto concrete with no broken bones, being left with just a bruise and a scratch on his knee.

Nurses said that the boy suffered just minor injuries because he didn’t stiffen his body when he fell.

Leo had been playing with his elder brother Jayhan, three, on their parents’ bed when he fell through the open first floor window. His father, Antony, 34, who was also sitting on the bed, made a desperate grab for him and screamed as he watched his tiny son lose his grip on the window frame and fall to the concrete below.

6 Toddler Falls 80 Feet and Bounces into the Arms of a Doctor

In what was called a miracle by the French media, an 18-month-old infant survived an 80-foot fall from a sixth-floor apartment after being left unattended by his parents.

He had a stroke of luck when a passing doctor saw him fall and caught him before he hit the ground. The doctor found no injuries but he was taken to the hospital for a check-up.

The toddler’s fall was broken by the awning of Le Vincennes cafe – which was only in place because a mechanism had jammed and stopped it from being lowered.

A witness living in a building opposite the apartment said that he saw the baby playing by the window with a girl a few years older. They were coming and going from the window, he said, and he had a feeling that something bad might happen.

The doctor who caught the boy, identified as Philippe Benseniot, was walking by with his wife and son, who spotted the boy falling.

7 Baby Girl Survives a 30-Meter Fall from a Cable Car Over the Swiss Alps which Kills Her Parents

A baby survived a 100-foot fall from a cable car – which killed her parents – by landing in a tree.

Rescuers heard murmurings in bushes and found the one-year-old in a baby carrier rucksack. The accident killed both her parents, but the one-year-old orphan managed to escape death.

The child’s mother, 31, and father, 38, took the cable car, which was intended for freight use, to descend 2,700 ft up the Baerlaui Alp, Switzerland during a trek. Suddenly, just after starting, there was a sudden lurch which tipped all three out onto the rocks nearly 100 feet below.

Mother and father died instantly from head wounds, but rescuers heard whimpering from a rucksack and it was the baby, who was severely hurt but alive. The rucksack was said to have cushioned the fall.

Authorities said that the man, a Swiss native who lived with his Canadian wife abroad, had returned with his family for a holiday in the region.

8 Toddler Survives a Three-Story Fall by Landing on His Feet

In March 2013, a four-year-old boy from Colorado survived a three-story fall, miraculously landing on his feet. Dylan Hayes fell out of the window of his Aurora apartment while his mother was shampooing her carpets. She had moved her couch to the wall when Dylan climbed on it to talk through the windows to the downstairs neighbors.

Dylan fell out of the third story window, did two somersaults in the air, and landed on the rock below on his feet. The screen he broke through suffered more damage than he did. He was hospitalized for 20 hours, wearing a neck brace as a precaution, but he was released with barely a scratch.

The mother has since moved out of her apartment to live with a relative and is looking for a new home — on the first floor.

9 7-month-old Boy Survives a 40-Foot Fall After Being Thrown Off a Bridge

In 2012, a seven-month-old baby who was flung 40 feet down the Indira Gandhi railway from a bridge in Pimpri by his inebriated father after a quarrel with his wife miraculously survived the fall. The baby fell on a patch of thick grass between two railway tracks, cushioning his fall.

People who witnessed the quarrel and saw the man, Yuvraj Anil Deshmukh, throw the baby off the bridge thrashed him, and the police had a hard time rescuing him from their grip to arrest him.

The baby fell on the green patch between the two tracks and suffered no injuries.

10 Little girl Catches a Newborn Baby Who was Dropped from a Second-Story Window During a Fire

This little Georgia girl was hailed a hero for catching a baby who was dropped from a second-story apartment window during a fire. Zna Gresham, just ten years of age, caught the tiny newborn as she plunged 20 feet to the ground.

The infant was one of three kids who were launched out of the Atlanta block’s window by a desperate mom whose home was quickly being overcome with flames. Her two other children, ages two and three, hit the ground and sustained minor injuries.

According to firefighters, the mom had no other option but to drop her children. Thankfully, everyone survived.