(File photo)
A 5-year-old girl recently fell from the 11th floor of a residential building in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
At about 8:30 p.m. on the evening of Sept. 5, many residents of the Jinjiang City Park residential complex were gathered in the courtyard of Building No. 4. About 20 minutes prior, a young girl had fallen from above and landed in a patch of grass. One resident, who was in a teahouse on the first floor at the time of the incident, heard a loud sound. He ran out and quickly spotted the girl.
“She wasn't bleeding or crying. She just blinked her eyes,” the resident recalled. According to another witness, she attempted to stand up, but bystanders stopped her.
A reporter from Chengdu Commercial Daily noticed that there were several broken tree branches around the area where the girl landed; some of the branches were as thick as two fingers.
“The branches were fractured by the girl's fall,” explained a witness.
Another witness recalled, “She actually talked to us. ‘I am from the 11th floor’ is what she said.”
Mr. Xu, an employee of the complex's property management company, soon arrived and knocked on the door of the girl’s neighbor.
The neighbor confirmed that the girl lived next door, at which point they called the girl’s mother. Meanwhile, neighbors and staff from the property management company sent the girl to the hospital.
The reporter talked with the girl's mother at the hospital.
“I am so worried. The doctor said my daughter has two broken ribs and pneumothorax," the girl's mother fretted. In the emergency room, the girl lay quietly in her hospital bed. Her face had several scratches. Later, her mother transferred her to another hospital for further examination and treatment.
The girl’s father told the reporter that he was on a business trip at the time of the accident, and that his wife had briefly left the girl home alone so she could take their son to school. While her mother was gone, the girl climbed through the window and fell to the ground.
“I guess she heard the sound of other children playing downstairs,” said the girl's father. “We are very grateful to our neighbors and the staff of the property management company.”
Wei Yun, vice director of the Experimental Physics Center of Southwest Jiaotong University, explained that the tree branches and the grassy area, which was muddy after a recent rainfall, buffered the force of the girl's fall, enabling her to survive.
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