Boy bounces off bed, out window: 3-year-old OK after 30-foot fall
Published: September 15, 2006
Guillermina “Gia” Morcos says her 3-year-old son, Christian, was breaking a house rule when he started jumping on his sister’s bed. Bouncing up and down, the boy apparently was propelled out of an open window just above the bed.
He fell 30 feet to the driveway below.
Gia Morcos said she was heading downstairs to get dinner started when she heard her 4-year-old daughter, Katherine, yell something strange.
“I was halfway down the stairs when she said, ‘Mommy, Christian went out the window,’ ” Gia Morcos said. “I looked up and saw the (screen) was missing. I ran downstairs and to the driveway and saw him laying there. It was horrible. I thought he was gone. How could a tiny little boy survive such a fall?”
Christian had a concussion, a slight laceration to the liver and a bruised lung, but his mom says he’s in no pain from the fall, which police have labeled an accident. Doctors and nurses at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt are amazed he didn’t sustain more serious injuries.
“Considering the height of the fall, it was very surprising that he didn’t have a more significant head injury such as a skull fracture or head bleed,” said Dr. Jennifer Davis, a fellow at Monroe Carell, where Christian was held for observation. “Kids are really, really resilient. I’d say he was very lucky.”
Christian returned home to 548 Overview Lane in Franklin on Thursday after spending two nights in the hospital. He shows few signs of injury and doesn’t remember the fall. His mother believes it’s a miracle that Christian lived, but then again, he’s always been her “miracle boy.”
Christian’s father, Nasar, had gotten a vasectomy after their daughter was born, but six months later Gia was pregnant with Christian.
“I made him check back with the same doctor that gave him the vasectomy, and the doctor said there is no vasectomy here,” Gia said. “I think it was just God’s work. Maybe we fell into that .0009 percent possibility of a failure of the vasectomy.”
Christian was discharged from the hospital Thursday, and doctors told Gia to give her son Tylenol if he does complain of pain. On the way home from the hospital, he requested a McDonald’s Happy Meal, but didn’t stay awake long enough to eat it.
“We are just so thankful,” Gia said. “We believe it’s a miracle. Falling from 30 feet high and landing on the concrete, it’s just amazing. We are thankful to God.”
The window from which Christian fell is above a garage, which makes it a three-story fall. Christian’s bounce knocked the screen out of the window, which his mother had opened for fresh air, and he plummeted to the aggregate driveway below. Gia said he landed on his right side.
The frantic mother called 911. Emergency responders put a LifeFlight helicopter on standby, but Christian was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Gia said she loaded her other two children into a car and drove to the hospital, unsure if Christian would live.
“It was a heart-beating drive,” Gia said. “I was shaking and nervous. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
When she got to the hospital, she was surprised to hear that Christian was sitting in bed and had been playing with a toy.
Nurse Jennifer Bettag had been preparing for Christian’s arrival. She heard about the fall and said she was expecting more serious injuries.
“I expected a lot worse than what it was … something more to the head, especially not him talking and being so interactive,” Bettag said. “He didn’t like being here.”
As for jumping on the beds, there’s always been a rule against that in the Morcos house. Gia said she’ll have a new rule to go with it.
“From now on we keep the windows closed, or maybe I put some bars on them. I don’t want this happening again.”
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