'A miracle': 2-year-old recovering after falling from 15th floor apartment balcony
New updates on toddler who survived 15-story fall
It's the story making headlines around the world — a two-year-old survived a 15-story fall in Montgomery County. It happened at a high-rise apartment community in Silver Spring. FOX 5's Bob Barnard went to that apartment complex on Friday where he got new insights on what happened.
SILVER SPRING, Md. - It's the story making headlines around the world — a two-year-old survived a 15-story fall in Montgomery County.
It happened at a high-rise apartment community in Silver Spring.
FOX 5 went to The Enclave apartment complex in Silver Spring and visited a family on the 15th floor — the same floor the child fell from — to get a perspective of the fall the 2-year-old had taken.
"Just look over there. I don't know if he landed on the bushes. I don't know," said Mohamed Koroma, who allowed FOX 5 into his home. "That's a miracle. A miracle man. It's really sad."
These are the bushes that apparently broke the little boy's fall. They're not much. The authorities say the boy was on the 15th floor — it's a 20-story building. Around 2 p.m. on Thursday, the boy fell from the balcony.
We're told he suffered a broken leg and multiple internal injuries but nothing life-threatening. Adults were at home at the time but police say they're still investigating how the boy got over the protective glass that surrounds the balconies there.
"They must have some chairs here. The kid might've climbed over because there's no way. There must be some equipment right on the floor that the kid used to flip over," Koroma said.
Another neighbor who lives on the fifth floor of the building, says the toddler should never have been outside unsupervised.
"I feel like the children shouldn't be on the balcony, especially unattended because why are they outside? I have four children and they are not allowed on the balcony and we live on the fifth floor. So the 15th floor? That's crazy to me," mom Ty Powers said. "It's definitely a tragedy but people have got to watch their children. The baby should not have been outside on the balcony."
We're all wondering how it is possible to survive a fall of that distance. FOX 5 reached out to Children's National Hospital to ask that of a physician, who doesn't know this case but does know the laws of physics.
"I want to stress first that this is really miraculous," said Dr. Katie Donnelly, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor with Children’s National. "Falls from this height are usually pretty devastating.
Montgomery County police say there are no charges being filed against the parents or guardians of the boy who fell at this time.