Three children hurt in recent falls from upper-floor windows
PORTLAND, Ore. - A little boy trying to get a better view of workers on the job at his home is the latest of three children to fall from a window in the past week.
One child in Portland and two in Canby have been hurt and doctors said all of them are lucky to be alive, considering the heights they fell from.
Investigators think families are leaving second-floor windows open to cool off their home and the children are falling out of them.
Toddler Ryan French, 2, is in a partial body cast but is expected to recover after tumbling through a screen on the second floor of his home.
A patio table helped break his 15-foot fall, but he sustained a broken leg. Doctors said he was lucky to be alive.
French was under the supervision of his uncle at the time. The man had to call Ryan's parents with the bad news.
"Am I gonna have to bury my son? Is there going to be blood everywhere?" father Steve French recalls thinking as he raced from work to the hospital. "I didn't know what to expect and by the grace of God, he broke his leg."
Ryan was flown by helicopter to the hospital.
Emergency responders in Canby have raced to the site of two falls in just two days . One 2-year-old girl fell from the second floor of her apartment and landed head-first.
Rescuers say both children were injured but are lucky to be alive.
Safety experts advise parents to get inexpensive window sill blocking kits that are available at most home improvement stores and install them on upper floor windows so children cannot open them far enough to get through.
They also advise placing furniture or other obstacle in front of windows to keep children from opening them.
They say that if you need to open a window to cool off your home, choose windows that have a safety mechanism or can't be reached by children.
Back at the French home, Ryan and his father Steve are spending more time together while the little boy slowly heals.
"All this… could have been prevented," Steve French says as he looks at the bright red body cast encasing his son.
One child in Portland and two in Canby have been hurt and doctors said all of them are lucky to be alive, considering the heights they fell from.
Investigators think families are leaving second-floor windows open to cool off their home and the children are falling out of them.
Toddler Ryan French, 2, is in a partial body cast but is expected to recover after tumbling through a screen on the second floor of his home.
A patio table helped break his 15-foot fall, but he sustained a broken leg. Doctors said he was lucky to be alive.
French was under the supervision of his uncle at the time. The man had to call Ryan's parents with the bad news.
"Am I gonna have to bury my son? Is there going to be blood everywhere?" father Steve French recalls thinking as he raced from work to the hospital. "I didn't know what to expect and by the grace of God, he broke his leg."
Ryan was flown by helicopter to the hospital.
Emergency responders in Canby have raced to the site of two falls in just two days . One 2-year-old girl fell from the second floor of her apartment and landed head-first.
Rescuers say both children were injured but are lucky to be alive.
Safety experts advise parents to get inexpensive window sill blocking kits that are available at most home improvement stores and install them on upper floor windows so children cannot open them far enough to get through.
They also advise placing furniture or other obstacle in front of windows to keep children from opening them.
They say that if you need to open a window to cool off your home, choose windows that have a safety mechanism or can't be reached by children.
Back at the French home, Ryan and his father Steve are spending more time together while the little boy slowly heals.
"All this… could have been prevented," Steve French says as he looks at the bright red body cast encasing his son.