Fall from 8th floor of a building: Case report of a four year old girl

Abstract

Falling is part of the normal development of a child , while most falls are of little consequence some go beyond the resilience of a child’s body; making  falls the 4th largest cause of unintentional injury and death in children. A 4 year old girl who fell from 8th floor of a building and  presented to Accident and Emergency unit after 2 hours after a fall fully  conscious and sustained a right pneumothorax and bilateral upper limb  closed fractures. Fatal falls are classified as the ones from beyond 40 feet (causing severe head injury or thoracic injuries and abdominal injuries). Mortality rates in most studies were elevated in high level falls most of them secondary to head injury. Barlow et al also showed 100% survival in falls less than 3 stories while 50% survival from falls between 5 and 6 stories. This is a unique case in that a small child fell from 8 stories and survived, whereas other studies have reported a mortality of almost 100% in falls over 5 stories.