7 year old girl survives after falling 4 storeys onto a
concrete floor
SINGAPORE — She fell four storeys on to a concrete
floor, but Siti Nur Aini, 7, miraculously was still able to tell
the paramedics she was in pain.
She had slipped through a gap in the metal railing by the flat’s
lift—landing, suffering multiple fractures.
Her family said the gap was reported in December to the Bukit
Merah Town Council. But the latter last night said it could find no
record of the call.
The Blangah Rise Primary School student’s grandfather, retiree
Johari Mohd Siamu, said: “We thought it was quite dangerous, the
whole thing (railing) is rusty and shaky.”
At about 4.30pm yesterday, the 69—year—old had been cooking mee
rebus for his granddaughter at their flat at Telok Blangah
Crescent, when his sons brought her in after she had fallen.
“Her eyes were open but she didn’t talk. Then she started crying
and saying she was in pain,” said Mr Johari. His sons called for an
ambulance while he comforted her.
At the time of the mishap, a picnic mat had been hung to air
over the gap in the railing. Siti had been playing nearby. “I think
she was crawling behind it, and then suddenly we saw the mat move
and then we realised she had fallen,” said Mr Muhammad Azman, 24, a
family friend.
Mr Muhammad and Siti’s uncle Muhammad Syukri had been sitting
nearby at the landing, playing the guitar. “She knows not to play
there,” said Mr Muhammad Syukri, 20, currently unemployed. “We
always warn her not to run around too close.”
It was he who reportedly called the town council three months
ago about the broken railing. He claimed he was told someone would
be sent to check on it. “I didn’t hear from them, I don’t know if
they came or not.”
Neighbour Wee Deng Seng, 55, said residents often gathered at
the landing, where someone had left a sofa to sit on. “Sometimes
when we wait for the lift, we will lean on the railing, but then we
realised it was shaky.”
Last night, Member of Parliament for the ward Sam Tan and a town
council representative were at the National University Hospital
(NUH) to visit Siti, who was undergoing surgery for bleeding in her
abdomen.
Said Mr Tan: “We want to make sure the family doesn’t have to
worry about the medical expenses and that Siti gets the best
treatment possible.”
The medical bills, he said, could be billed directly to the town
council if the family has difficulty paying, and the town council
would contact its insurers to find out more about covering with its
public liability insurance.
In the meantime, a town council officer will be stationed at the
hospital to assist the family. The railing was also cordoned off
after the incident.
Town council property manager Vincent Lim, who went to NUH with
Mr Tan, said that typically if a report about damaged property came
in during office hours, officers would be sent down immediately.
“If it’s after office hours, then we will record it in the system
and alert someone to go down the next working day,” he said. —
TODAY/ar