Child Falls from 6th-Story Window in Harlem: Slow Response Sparks Concern

2023-07-05 15:11:00

A 3-year-old girl was seriously hospitalized following falling from a 6th-story window at her home in Harlem (NYC) yesterday followingnoon, and apparently her family was slow to notice.

According to police, the girl squeezed through a hole in an air-conditioned window inside an apartment on West 137th Street and fell around 1 p.m. Tuesday.

She was rushed to Harlem Hospital in critical condition. Her 37-year-old mother was at home at the time of her fall, but according to neighbors no one from the house came down until almost half an hour following the accident.

It was a Hispanic resident, Eustolia Gomez, 53, who ran to the girl following hearing her fall to the ground in the apartment building’s courtyard and called 911.

“It took them a long time to come down. They didn’t even know.” told the New York Post Gómez’s daughter, Alexandra Vivar (32), referring to the girl’s relatives. “I think the police woke them up.”

“I was here getting ready to cook when I heard something crashed. When I got closer, there was a girl on the ground face down,” Gomez said. “It was a very loud noise… I came running to find someone to call 911 because I didn’t have my phone.”

In a similar case, a month ago a 4-year-old girl miraculously survived following falling from a 3rd-floor window in a residential building in Brooklyn (NYC).

These types of accidents happen more frequently as the temperature in the city rises and adults open the windows to cool the spaces. As prevention, the authorities remember:

-Carefully check window guards periodically. Lids or screens are not safe substitutes.
-Never place a bed, chair or other object on which children can climb in front of a window.
-Keep minors away from balconies and terraces if they are not being closely supervised by an adult, closing the doors of those areas.
-Never allow children to play near elevator shafts or on fire escapes, balconies, terraces or roofs. Nor are they unsupervised in the hallways of buildings that have unattended windows.
-Call 311 to report unprotected hallway windows.

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