Posted on 07/09/2006 6:05:18 PM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Today: July 09, 2006 at 16:17:23 PDT
4-Year-Old Survives 11-Story Fall in N.Y.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - 0709dv-11-story-fall A 4-year-old boy survived a fall from an 11-story window after being left alone at home, bouncing off a metal awning into a concrete courtyard and then trying to stand up, officials said. He was able to chat with doctors.
"I'm amazed the kid's alive," Police Chief James Tuffey said.
Hasim Townsend remained in serious condition Saturday, a day after his fall, with a broken skull, a broken leg and other injuries.
"It's an incredibly good sign that he was talking, and I can't attribute it to anything other than good luck," said Dr. Michael Dailey, an attending physician in the emergency department.
The boy ended up in the same pediatric intensive care unit at Albany Medical Center where his mother works as a receptionist, police reports said.
Elizabeth Burciaga, 21, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She initially told police the boy had been left with a baby sitter, officials said.
A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered for her, authorities said, and an order of protection to keep her away from the boy has been filed.
The boy stood on a bed and pressed against a window screen, which gave way, police said. He hit the awning about 12 feet off the ground, and it flexed and saved him.
Police came after residents heard him crying. Paramedics had to hold the boy still.
Albany has no regulation requiring bars or other window guards in high-rise apartments, said Steve Longo, executive director of the Albany Housing Authority.
Lucky kid. No tears in heaven this time....
"good luck? ....... when this kid gets old enough I want to go in with him on a lottery ticket.
21 years old... 4 year old child... so, she was knocked up when she was 16 or 17. I wonder where the father was/is.
Please excuse me if I sound like I'm being judgmental.
It's bad luck that he has such a lousy mother.
Maybe the apartments are required to have bars on the windows...but that mother will be lucky NOT to end up behind bars herself.
Poor little guy...only a guardian angel watching over him.
Prison is my guess for his present address.
The boy stood on a bed and pressed against a window screen, which gave way
Isn't there a printed warning on window screens to prevent this?
Two other factoids. Mother works as a receptionist during the day and as a stripper at night. She left her kid alone in the apt that night to spy on her boyfriend who she suspected of cheating on her.
Single mother or not, you don't leave a young child home alone.
From whence came these factoids?
"From whence came these factoids?"
Local radio and newspaper reports.
I pray that the kids are given to good parents. This 21 year old girl is not.
She was a mom at 17. How good a parent would everyone here have been at that age.
Are you serious? Come on. At 17 we KNEW we would NOT be good parents which is why we waited until (for me) 28. Get real. This girl does not deserve to keep the kid. She is endangering the kid(s).
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