OAKLAND PARK, Fla., April 6 (UPI) -- A 5-year-old American girl and an 18-month-old South African boy both survived seven-story falls days apart this week, authorities said.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office said the girl was recovering in a hospital after her apparently accidental fall in Oakland Park, Fla., Friday night, the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale reported.
"The child was put to bed and at some point the family went to check on her," spokesman Mike Jachles told the newspaper. "She was climbing on the window sill and fell through the screen seven floors down and landed on the grass."
Jachles said the girl, who was reported in critical condition, but her injuries did not appear to be outwardly life threatening.
"She's very lucky," he said. "For somebody to survive a seven story fall is nothing short of a miracle."
Halfway around the world, the baby boy, whose name wasn't reported, didn't suffer any broken bones when he fell from the seventh floor of an apartment building Sunday, The (Johannesburg) Star reported.
"Maybe there was a guardian angel that was protecting him," a doctor who treated the child told The Star. "He did not have broken bones, ribs, limbs or any fractures. We kept him overnight just to make sure we did not miss anything. But the following day we still didn't find anything wrong with him and discharged him."
It wasn't known how the boy had fallen.
