A 4-year-old boy is recovering in the hospital after falling out of a third-floor apartment window in North Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, according to police. Officers responded to the 2200 block of North 7th Street around 6:38 p.m. on April 28 after a report that someone had fallen from a window. The child was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, and the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit launched an investigation into what happened.
Officers found the boy after he fell from a third-floor unit and rushed him to a nearby hospital, NBC10 Philadelphia reported. Police told the outlet the child’s condition was stable while investigators in the Special Victims Unit looked into the circumstances of the fall.
6abc reported that the boy was first taken to Temple University Hospital, then transferred to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children for additional treatment. Officials at the scene did not share further details about how the fall occurred.
How common are window falls?
Falls from windows remain a stubborn danger for young kids. A national review of emergency-department data estimated an average of about 5,180 pediatric window-fall injuries every year from 1990 through 2008, with the youngest children facing the highest risk. The analysis found that children under 4 years old were more likely to suffer head injuries and to be hospitalized after a window fall, according to Pediatrics.
Prevention that works
Cities that combine public education with basic safety hardware have seen sharp drops in these kinds of accidents. The New York City’s Health Department notes that its window-guard rules helped bring falls down from roughly 100 a year in the 1970s to a fraction of that today. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends installing window guards or stops that limit window openings to about four inches and keeping furniture away from windows to reduce the risk of a fall.
Philadelphia police have not released additional information about how the boy fell, and no charges have been announced. The Special Victims Unit is continuing its investigation, and Hoodline will update this story if more details are made public.
