EVERETT – A grief counselor will meet Sunday with friends and neighbors of a toddler who fell out a window and dropped four stories to the ground.
The boy, 3, was listed in critical condition Friday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was taken after he tumbled out an open window about 9 p.m. Thursday at the Mill Pointe Apartments in the 3100 block of 132nd Street SE.
The boy was in his bedroom when he leaned against a screen, Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said. The screen gave out and the boy fell onto asphalt four stories below, landing on his head, she said.
“This is a tragic, tragic accident,” she said.
Danielle Whitaker, a friend of the boy’s mother, was at the scene.
“She had laid him down to go to sleep and had left the room and was out in the living room which is the next room over, and she heard something crash,” Whitaker said. “He plays with the window a lot. But he’s never, ever played with the window when he’s supposed to go to bed.”
The mother has stayed at the hospital, and the boy’s father, who is in the Navy stationed in Maryland, is on his way to Everett, Whitaker said.
The boy also has a sister, 6.
“He’s very obedient, a very sweet, well-mannered child,” Whitaker said of the boy.
Friends organized a candlelight vigil for 9 p.m. Friday.
Friends and other residents at the apartments were so upset that the county chapter of the American Red Cross provided brochures on dealing with trauma, said Coni Conner, the chapter’s disaster manager.
A counselor will meet with them at 11 a.m. Sunday at the complex, and Red Cross personnel will continue to be available.
An estimated 4,700 children a year are treated nationwide for injuries sustained from window falls, said Becky Martin, trauma nurse coordinator for Providence Everett Medical Center.
“Falls are common during the summer months, especially around here, where we open our windows instead of closing them up and turning on the air conditioning,” Martin said.
She recommended a few safety tips, including moving furniture away from windows and installing safety locks.
“Unfortunately, children are getting hurt way too often,” Martin said.
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