Society

Toddler falls off high-rise, saved by neighbor

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-07-03 19:58

HANGZHOU - A two-year-old girl who fell out of the window of her 10th-floor home in East China's Zhejiang province on Saturday was miraculously saved by a young mother who just happened to be walking by the building at the time.

Wu Juping, 31, reached the falling child in time to break the toddler's fall, preventing the girl from hitting the ground at full force.

Wu Juping smiles at her own son in a ward of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Bone Fracture Hospital at Fuyang, a county-level city in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, July 3, 2011, after she has saved a 2-year-old girl falling out of the window of a 10th-floor apartment.[Xinhua]

Wu, a mother of a seven-month-old boy, suffered a broken arm, while the toddler, nicknamed "Niu Niu," suffered serious internal injuries but survived the fall nonetheless.

Niu Niu, who was home alone at the time, was seen dangling out of the window of her home near Hangzhou, the provincial capital, at midday Saturday.

"She clung to the windowpane for about two minutes and then fell to the ground," said a neighbor who witnessed the incident.

Wu was strolling by the building at the time of the fall. Seeing the child about to plummet from the building, she kicked off her high-heeled shoes and ran underneath the child, stretching her arms to the sky in an effort to catch the toddler in mid-fall.

Niu Niu fell from the building and hit Wu's left arm before falling onto the lawn. Wu passed out after being hit, but soon woke up in pain.

Both were rushed to the hospital. Wu incurred fractures in her left arm, which will require surgery to repair. Niu Niu was found to be bleeding internally and is still in critical condition.

Wu and Niu Niu live in the same residential area and were not acquainted with each other before the incident occurred.

Wu Juping smiles at her own son in a ward of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Bone Fracture Hospital at Fuyang, a county-level city in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, July 3, 2011, after she has saved a 2-year-old girl falling out of the window of a 10th-floor apartment.[Xinhua]

The story was quickly posted on popular Chinese microblogging site weibo.cn, with photos detailing Wu's heroic efforts.

Thousands of people were moved by Wu's actions and prayed for her and the child to recover soon.

"In dynamic terms it would be impossible to catch the child, but in a world with love, everything is possible," said a Weibo member using the screenname "pamphlet."

A hospital in the nearby city of Fuyang that specializes in treating fractures has offered to treat Wu for free.

"When she reached out to the child, she put her own life at risk," said Jin Dengfeng, the hospital's president. "She could have died or been paralyzed for the rest of her life if the child had hit her head or back."

Jin said Wu will need six months to recover from her injuries.

For her part, Wu seems to be satisfied with the way things turned out for her. "I don't regret anything that happened. I just hope that Niu Niu will recover," she said.