Some 5,200 U.S. children fall from windows

CINCINNATI, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Each year, about 5,200 children and adolescents up to age 17 fall out of windows and are treated in U.S. emergency departments, researchers say.

Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital who was the senior author of the study, said about 14 U.S. children are injured each day as a result of a window fall.

The study, to be published in the September print issue of Pediatrics, found children up to age 4 were especially vulnerable, accounting for 65 percent of the injuries, but also having a higher rate of serious injury resulting in hospitalization or death.

Children who fell from a height of three stories or above or who landed on a hard surface, such as concrete or brick, were also at increased risk for serious injury, Smith says.

Forty-nine percent of the injuries were to the face region, 41 percent of the injuries were to soft tissue injury and 21 percent of the injuries were to the brain/head, the study said.

"Window fall injuries are serious," Smith says in a statement. "In fact, one out of every four children in our study was hospitalized as a result of their injury."