Child survives fall from third floor of mall in Pagadian City
Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur. INQUIRER FILES
PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur — A three-year-old girl from Barangay Balintawak survived a fall from the third floor of the City Commercial Center in Barangay Santiago in this city on Monday.
Pagadian City Health Officer Debbylene Tan-Ildefonso said the child was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. As of Monday, she was in a stable condition.
The child’s doctor told the city health officer that based on the initial assessment, “the child was okay,” but needed to undergo an X-ray and CT scan to further check on possible fractures and other injuries.
Police said the girl was with her mother, who was at the mall about lunchtime to check on gadgets displayed on the third floor.
While the mother was selecting a mobile phone, she temporarily lost sight of her daughter, according to the police.
She thought that her daughter was still standing beside her when loud shouts from other shoppers startled her as the child fell from the third floor to the ground floor of the building.
Witnesses said that while the mother was focused on the mobile phone display, the child wandered around the area and approached the escalator.
The child grabbed the rubber handrail, which caused her to be pulled in, and then she fell to the ground floor.
She landed on a glass display counter containing lotions and boxes of beauty products, which helped cushion the impact of the fall.
Ildefonso said they were still awaiting the results of the child’s other examinations but they remained hopeful after the child’s doctor reported that she “could follow commands, was conscious and could talk,” and that “they detected no neurologic deficits, so far.”
