DeafMonkey
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2005
- Messages
- 9,538
- Reaction score
- 2
TheStar.com - News - Boy survives 9-floor fall
Boy survives 9-floor fall
Soggy ground may have
saved his life; 5-year-old boy
suffers broken legs
Paramedics carry 5-year-old Yong Jin Kim to an ambulance March 28 after he fell from the ninth-floor balcony of his family's apartment in Hamilton. Kim suffered broken legs in the fall and is in serious but stable condition at McMaster Children's Hospital.
HAMILTON–Heavy rains, recent snow, thick sod and a lot of luck saved Yong Jin Kim's life.
The 5-year-old boy survived a nine-storey fall off the balcony of his family's apartment in Hamilton yesterday, complaining only of a hurt leg by the time emergency crews arrived.
The boy, who broke both his legs in the fall, was listed in serious but stable condition at McMaster Children's Hospital late yesterday.
Jack Smith, president of the Canada Safety Council, says there's no doubt the mushy ground saved him, absorbing much of the impact of his fall.
"Once you get above four floors – particularly on a hard surface such as concrete – the chances of survival are pretty slim," Smith said yesterday.
"To come off the ninth storey and survive, the chance of survival is pretty remote.
"He is an awfully lucky kid."
Most children who survive a fall from a building have done so from the fifth floor or lower, he said.
The boy's prone outline stamped into the soft ground suggests his weight – and the force of the impact – was more or less evenly distributed.
Small children tend to do better than adults surviving falls, Smith said, because their young bones are more flexible.
There were no trees, canopies or other structures that could have cushioned his fall and the boy fell directly from the balcony to the lawn.
After the fall, the boy's distraught mother picked him up and rushed to a variety store about 100 metres away for help. The store is run by a Korean family who knows them and speaks more English.
"She came into the store crying, `Help me, help me,'" said the store clerk.
The clerk's sister, who owns the store, called 911. The boy had no obvious injuries, except for a trickle of blood from his nose. But he told the clerk he had also hurt his leg.
"I think he's OK. He was speaking to me (in Korean). I asked him, `Are you hurt?' He said his leg is hurt," said the variety store clerk, who didn't want his name used.
He said the mother, who speaks little English, asked him to phone her husband to alert him to the accident.
The balcony he fell from covers the full width of the apartment and is enclosed with a solid metal panel that is at least a metre high – about the same height as the boy.
There was no furniture on the balcony after the accident, only a mountain bike lying on its side and two pairs of sandals. Other tenants in the building said the mother had been cleaning the balcony.
The Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program says falls of all kinds are the leading cause of hospitalization for those under 20. But they account for a small number of injury-related deaths in that group.
In the 5-year-old to 9-year-old group, fall-related injuries cause more than 40 per cent of hospital admissions. More boys than girls are injured or die in these incidents.
The vast majority of falls involving young children in Canada occur at home, climbing on or falling off furniture, pushing through window screens or slipping from balconies.
From 1990 to 1992 falls from buildings killed seven children and youth under 20 and put 634 more in hospital.
Hamilton Spectator
Boy survives 9-floor fall
Soggy ground may have
saved his life; 5-year-old boy
suffers broken legs
Paramedics carry 5-year-old Yong Jin Kim to an ambulance March 28 after he fell from the ninth-floor balcony of his family's apartment in Hamilton. Kim suffered broken legs in the fall and is in serious but stable condition at McMaster Children's Hospital.
Mar 29, 2007 04:30 AM
John Burman
Torstar News Service
John Burman
Torstar News Service
HAMILTON–Heavy rains, recent snow, thick sod and a lot of luck saved Yong Jin Kim's life.
The 5-year-old boy survived a nine-storey fall off the balcony of his family's apartment in Hamilton yesterday, complaining only of a hurt leg by the time emergency crews arrived.
The boy, who broke both his legs in the fall, was listed in serious but stable condition at McMaster Children's Hospital late yesterday.
Jack Smith, president of the Canada Safety Council, says there's no doubt the mushy ground saved him, absorbing much of the impact of his fall.
"Once you get above four floors – particularly on a hard surface such as concrete – the chances of survival are pretty slim," Smith said yesterday.
"To come off the ninth storey and survive, the chance of survival is pretty remote.
"He is an awfully lucky kid."
Most children who survive a fall from a building have done so from the fifth floor or lower, he said.
The boy's prone outline stamped into the soft ground suggests his weight – and the force of the impact – was more or less evenly distributed.
Small children tend to do better than adults surviving falls, Smith said, because their young bones are more flexible.
There were no trees, canopies or other structures that could have cushioned his fall and the boy fell directly from the balcony to the lawn.
After the fall, the boy's distraught mother picked him up and rushed to a variety store about 100 metres away for help. The store is run by a Korean family who knows them and speaks more English.
"She came into the store crying, `Help me, help me,'" said the store clerk.
The clerk's sister, who owns the store, called 911. The boy had no obvious injuries, except for a trickle of blood from his nose. But he told the clerk he had also hurt his leg.
"I think he's OK. He was speaking to me (in Korean). I asked him, `Are you hurt?' He said his leg is hurt," said the variety store clerk, who didn't want his name used.
He said the mother, who speaks little English, asked him to phone her husband to alert him to the accident.
The balcony he fell from covers the full width of the apartment and is enclosed with a solid metal panel that is at least a metre high – about the same height as the boy.
There was no furniture on the balcony after the accident, only a mountain bike lying on its side and two pairs of sandals. Other tenants in the building said the mother had been cleaning the balcony.
The Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program says falls of all kinds are the leading cause of hospitalization for those under 20. But they account for a small number of injury-related deaths in that group.
In the 5-year-old to 9-year-old group, fall-related injuries cause more than 40 per cent of hospital admissions. More boys than girls are injured or die in these incidents.
The vast majority of falls involving young children in Canada occur at home, climbing on or falling off furniture, pushing through window screens or slipping from balconies.
From 1990 to 1992 falls from buildings killed seven children and youth under 20 and put 634 more in hospital.
Hamilton Spectator
