homes, they're usually focused on keeping cabinets
locked and storing sharp objects or dangerous
chemicals out of reach. So when Jessica Hayes of
Aurora, Colorado, was spring cleaning recently, she
says says that she didn't think of the potential for
danger when she pushed her couch out of the way,
against the wall and under a window in her third-
story apartment.
Also on Shine: Child-Proofing Tips to Protect Your
Kids in Home Dan...
While she was shampooing the carpets and her
mom was helping out in the kitchen, her 4-year-old
son, Dylan, climbed up on the couch to chat with a
downstairs neighbor through the window. As he
leaned against the flimsy screen, it gave way and
he fell three stories, landing on the rock-covered
ground below.
Also on Shine: Danger on the Playground? Riding
the Slide with Your...
"My mom was cleaning our fridge out and, all of a
sudden, I hear her screaming, 'Dylan just went out
the window!'" Hayes told KCNC-TV, a CBS News
affiliate in Denver, on Sunday.
She ran down the stairs, panicked. "I was terrified,"
she said. "I didn't know what I was going to see
when I got down to the ground floor."
But, instead of the nightmare she was expecting,
her preschooler was just standing there, apparently
unhurt. According to CBS News, the little boy fell
through the window's screen, did two somersaults
in the air, and landed on his feet on the gravel.
"I heard a crash and the next thing I know I just
saw a blur," neighbor Pat Roush told KCNC. "It was
just red and blue"—the colors of the Superman T-
shirt Dylan was wearing.
"I falled," confirmed the boy. "Really, really far."
He spent about 20 hours in the hospital, wearing a
neck brace as a precaution, but doctors released
him, saying he had barely a scratch on him. He's
not even traumatized by the event,
though he does caution other kids to "not open
windows." His mom, on the other hand, was so
shaken up by the event that she's moved out of the
third-floor apartment and is living with a relative.
"It's gotten easier to not blame myself since it
happened two weeks ago," she told KCNC. "I wish
the danger would have crossed my mind, but it
didn't." She says she's speaking out now, in the
hope that other parents will be more aware of the
dangers than she was. She's looking for a new
home on the first floor, she told the news station,
and says that she feels "beyond lucky" that Dylan
survived the 30-plus-foot fall.
"There had to have been angels watching over
him," his grandmother, Kelli Hayes, agreed.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
Post a Comment