CHENNAI: An eight-month old baby had a miraculous escape after she slipped off the fifth-floor balcony of her grandmother’s house in Sowcarpet. Sources say she landed on a scooter before hitting the ground. She sustained a fracture on her left leg and injuries to her neck in the fall from a height of about 30 feet. She is undergoing treatment at a private hospital.
The incident happened on Monday at around 10.30 am, when the baby -- Jiniesha -- was playing in her grandmother’s house while her mother and her two aunts were busy in the kitchen preparing lunch. “Jiniesha, crawled up to one of the bedroom, where the balcony door had been left open. She crawled up to the balcony and slipped off it,” said a relative of the victim.
The first floor of the building has a furniture shop, while the other floors have houses. “The staff at the furniture shop and an auto rickshaw driver who was standing opposite the building noticed the baby fall,” said a police officer. The staff and the driver rushed the baby to a private hospital.
“Jiniesha, her parents Maypal and Neelam and their elder daughter, a three-and-a-half-year-old, reside at Visakhapatnam. They had come to visit their relatives in Chennai a week ago. They were staying in Sowcarpet Mint Street,” said a relative of the baby. “We were busy in the kitchen and did not notice the baby missing. It was only after 20 minutes that the staff from the furniture shop informed us that the baby had fallen off the balcony and was taken to hospital. Only then, we rushed to the hospital,” added the relative.
“There was a delay in informing the baby’s parents of the incident as they are guests and are new to the area. The staff of the furniture shop did not know the parents of the baby were,” said a police officer. The Elephant Gate police said they received information about the incident from the hospital, and so far no complaint has been registered.