SURVENT

A 4 year old boy in Albany, New York was left home Friday while his mother went to work. Per the full story:

The boy stood on a bed and pressed against a window screen, which gave way, police said. He hit the awning about 12 feet off the ground, and it flexed and saved him.

Hasim Townsend remained in serious condition Saturday, a day after his fall, with a broken skull, a broken leg and other injuries.

What is crazy about this is that the apartment window this kid fell out was 11 stories up! Some people say there is no such thing as luck, but this is a great example of it. That or he has on hell of a guardian angel watching over him.

So here is the kicker of the story:

The boy ended up in the same pediatric intensive care unit at Albany Medical Center where his mother works as a receptionist, police reports said.

It's no wonder that the boys mother, Elizabeth Burciaga, is a receptionist there and not a nurse or doctor. What is scary to me is that someone with this amount of poor judgement is probably taking emergency calls and directing them to where they need to go. Granted, there are probably only a few options and a standard procedure they follow for every call, but she is lacking some common sense for sure.

According to the article, executive director of the Albany Housing Authority, Steve Longo, says there are no regulations requiring bars or other window guards in high-rise apartments. I think the people of Albany need to push to have a requirement put in effect. The landlords would be the ones responsible for putting in such devices, so the tenants would not have to shell out any money. I think that all windows that are above ground level anywhere should have a safety device on the window when children are present to prevent things like this from happening. Kids may not fall out of windows every day, but there is a high enough occurence that parents should be protecting them better to ensure it never does happen.

I hope little Hasim continues to do well and comes out of this ok - best wishes kiddo.