3-Year-Old Boy Dies After Falling from 18th floor of Chicago High-Rise

Chicago Police Department Jermont Terry Uptown Building Chicago High Rise Lake View Towers Complex Advocate Illinois Masanoc Medical Center

By Camille Hutchison , Parent Herald Jul 23, 07:30 pm

Chicago Police reported that a 3-year-old boy died after falling from the 18th floor of the north tower of the Lake View Towers complex, a high-rise in the Uptown community about 7 p.m.

It was unclear who was in the apartment with the little boy at the time he fell but the windows in the building are opened inward which allows the kid enough space for an arm to poke through.

In such a case, it was enough room for the boy to slip out of the window and through a screen, Jermont Terry reported on CBS News.

Looking after a child's security

According to Terry, people shake their heads in disbelief as they walked by and looked up at the incident and there was agony among neighbors upon knowing what had happened.

The poor young boy landed on a three-story parking structure that serves as a partition between the two twenty-six-storey towers.

Emergency crews performed Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on the scene and transported him to a local hospital in critical condition but the boy was later pronounced dead at Advocate Illinois Masanoc Medical Center, per NBC Chicago.

Terry reported that some witnesses said that a woman, possibly the boy's mother, broke down in tears in the hallway.

"She's on the floor - I saw. She's on the floor," a woman said. "Very painful at this time.... She's not feeling well."

Child fall prevention

Falls are one of the most common causes of death or injuries in kids. For parents to prevent their kids from falling, they must keep an eye on their kids.

An infant should never be left unattended in high places even if they appear to be preoccupied since it only takes one roll at the wrong time for things to take a traumatic turn.

On the other hand, toddlers and big kids must not be left unattended around fall hazards such as open stairs, playgrounds, porches, balconies, and open windows as falls, slips, and trips can happen any time and very easily.

Before turning your elsewhere, parents must make sure that their child is safe no matter what they're doing, per Health Partners.

Crucial numbers of young children are becoming severely injured due to falls from residential building windows. Children between the ages of 2 and 5 years are specifically at risk of falling. Nevertheless, several children as young as one year and kids in the older age bracket have also been injured due to a fall from a window.

In NSW (New South Wales), laws for windows in strata buildings came into force on March 13th of 2018. The law requires all strata buildings to secure that windows above the ground floor do not open for more than 12.5 cm. The property owner is accountable for providing window safety devices for rooms above the ground floor.