Toddler slips, falls to death from third floor balcony

August 21, 2012

toddler


Bangalore, August 21: 'Aunty, Poorvaj fell down,' screamed said five-year-old Satya Kaushik from the balcony of his third floor apartment.

Twenty-two-month-old Poorvaj and his mother G Lakshmamma were visiting their neighbour K Sapna's flat opposite theirs on the third floor of the five-storey Chaithrashree Residence apartmentc complex on Bilekahalli Main Road, off Bannerghatta Road on Monday afternoon.

Lakshmamma rushed to the balcony only see her toddler son lying with his face down on the stone slab outside the main gate of the apartment. Lakshmamma rushed down, with Sapna and in tow.

The housewife put her son into a neighbour's car and drove to Fortis hospital, about 3 km from apartment. Poorvaj battled for life in vain. Around 3.30 pm, about three hours after the accident, doctors declared the child dead.

Poorvaj's father, Girish Babu, was not at home at the time of the accident. Girish works as a software engineer with Honeywell on Bannerghatta Road. Hailing from Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, Girish and Lakshmamma had shifted to Chaitrashree apartment in 2010.

Lakshmamma went to Sapna's flat around 12.30 pm. The two housewives sat down in the hall for a chat, as their children, Poorvaj and Satya headed to the balcony. Within minutes, Satya yelled about the accident to the two women. Channabasappa Hanumanna, security guard of the apartment, told TOI that he heard a loud thud followed by screams of Sapna and Lakshmamma.

"I was sitting near the gate when I heard the sound and saw the boy lying down. Before I could reach him, the two women came down and took the boy to hospital. The boy was not moving and blood was oozing out of his mouth and ears." Channabasappa said.

Police suspect that the child might have fell after getting through the balcony railings. The horizontal railings had ample space for a child to slip through, they said. But they did not rule out the chance of the kid climbing over the balcony and falling down.Deputy commissioner of police (south-east) PS Harsha said that the child fell down from a height of at least 30 feet. "He directly hit the rough stone slab laid in front of the main gate and sustained grievous head injuries," Harsha said.

First such tragedy in 2012

Poorvaj's is the first instance of a child or an adult falling from the balcony of upper floors with fatal consequences in 2012. The last year witnessed six such gruesome accidents.

Jan 8, 2011 Prajit Banerjee was so engrossed in a telephone conversation that he tripped over his seventh floor apartment's balcony railings and fell to his death on Bannerghatta Road. He was waiting for prospective buyers for his home when the accident happened.

April 11, 2011: Nayana Manoj (1) was playing with a cup and pen, when the cup went diving down the balcony. The little girl peeped through the gap between the railings of the balcony of her second-floor home in Srinivasa Nagar, keeled over, hit the ground and died.

April 28, 2011: Shalini M, 16, fell from the terrace of a two-storey building opposite her house and died. She was playing with her friends when the accident happened.

July 25, 2011: Eighteen-month-old Arman Kashyap died after he wriggled out of his mother's arms while she was feeding him near the open window of the passage in their house on the 9th floor of Adarsh Rhythm in JP Nagar. The toddler hit the roof of the porch below and was killed.

Aug 2, 2011: A two-year-old boy fell from the 3rd floor of his house at Shamanna Garden, Byatarayanapura. Mohammed Noor had climbed up to the 3rd floor through a grill gate on the 2nd floor. He was trying to climb on to the parapet wall when he slipped and fell.

September 24, 2011 Two-year-old Vandana C succumbed to her injuries after she fell from the balcony of her house in Vijayanagar. She was playing near the balcony railings and fell while collecting her toys.

What the law says

BBMP has specifications on the width of the balcony from second floor onwards (1.1 metres on the first floor and 1.7 metres or one-third of the setback whichever is lesser). But it is silent on the height of the balcony parapet walls or the permitted gap between railings used.

But the national building code for apartments in India suggest that every slab or balcony overlooking any exterior or interior open space which are 2 meters or more below shall be provided with parapet walls or guard rails of height not less than 1.20 meters. Building norms say that the railings should have a gap of not more than 15 cm between them.



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News Network
July 21,2020

Nagpur, July 21: In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old boy allegedly killed self in Maharashtra's Nagpur city after being reprimanded by his mother for buying a samosa, police said on Tuesday.

Veeru Natthu Sahu was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his home in Ganga Nagar in Gittikhadan area on Sunday night, an official said.

The deceased boy's family was struggling to make ends meet after their small business was hit because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, he said.

The Class 7 student had taken Rs 10 from home without asking his mother and bought a samosa, which was then eaten by his elder brother, the official said.

The boy's mother scolded him for taking money without her permission and asked him to get the snack for himself, following which the distraught minor allegedly went into the kitchen and hanged himself using a saree, he said.

The Gittikhadan police have registered a case of accidental death in this regard, the official added.

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News Network
June 25,2020

Jun 25: A 16-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide at her house in east Delhi and her family members secretly buried her body, which was later exhumed for post-mortem, police said on Wednesday.

The girl, whose family hails from Jharkhand, allegedly hanged herself in a room in her house on Monday, they said.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot, police said.

Her body was exhumed on Tuesday as per the directions of the Sub Divisional Magistrate of the area. The process was carried out as her family members secretly buried her without informing the police.

The post-mortem will be conducted after Covid-19 tests, police said.

The incident took place on Monday. The reason behind her taking the extreme step is yet to be ascertained, they said.

Police said the girl lived with her mother and two siblings. The family hails from Jharkhand and are financially extremely weak. Her father died two years ago, they said.

After the father’s death, the girl's mother along with her siblings took her body to a burial ground and buried her, police said.

The police said the matter came to their notice after a neighbour alerted them about it. Following the information the body was exhumed, they said.

On questioning the girl's mother, she told police that she didn't know that one has to inform police in a suicide case, a senior police officer said.

Inquest proceedings have been initiated, police said.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Mumbai, Feb 10: Ankita Pisudde, a resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, was critical after sustaining 40% burns on February 3 when she was set afire, allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on her way to college.

The 25-year-old woman lecturer who was set on fire by a stalker in Maharashtra’s Wardha district last week died at a hospital in Nagpur on Monday morning, a police official said.

Ankita Pisudde, resident of Hinganghat town in Wardha, had been critical after sustaining 35 to 40% “grade III” burns on February 3 when she was set afire allegedly by one Vikesh Nagrale (27) while she was on way to her college, they said.

She was undergoing treatment at the Orange City Hospital & Research Centre here, located around 75 km from Wardha.

“Doctors at the hospital declared her dead at 6.55 a.m. today,” Hinganghat’s police inspector Satyaveer Bandiwar said.

The woman sustained deep burn injuries on scalp, face, right upper limb, left hand, upper back, neck and eyes along with severe inhalational injuries, the hospital said in a medical bulletin on Monday.

She died of “septicemic shock” after suffering from deep dermal burns along with severe inhalational injuries, respiratory distress and related complications, it said.

Around 4 a.m. on Monday, her oxygen levels deteriorated inspite of ventilator support, coupled with decreasing urine output and reduction in blood pressure, the hospital said.

As part of immediate resuscitation measures, medicines were escalated to maintain the blood pressure and all feasible steps were taken to improve the oxygen levels in blood, but the patient remained “extremely critical”, it said.

“Around 6.30 a.m., she had bradycardia and inspite of prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient could not be revived and was declared dead at 6.55 a.m.,” it said.

The probable cause of death was “septicemic shock”, the bulletin added.

During her treatment, she underwent tracheostomy (creating an opening in neck to place a tube into the windpipe to allow air to enter the lungs), burn dressings, debridement and escharotomies, the hospital informed.

Debridement is a medical procedure to remove dead, damaged or infected tissue, while escharotomy is a surgical procedure used to treat full-thickness (third-degree) circumferential burns.

The woman’s parents and uncle were kept informed about her deteriorating health condition and death, the hospital said, adding that the body was later handed over to police for postmortem and other formalities.

After the woman’s condition deteriorated, the hospital informed about her critical status to Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Wardha Guardian Minister Sunil Kedar, Nagpur Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Kumar, Police Commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, Wardha Collector Vivek Bhimanwar and Wardha Superintendent of Police Basavraj Teli.

Heavy security was deployed in Hinganghat to avoid any law and order problem following her death, the police said.

Several locals, mostly women and college students, took out a march in Wardha city last Thursday, demanding death penalty for the accused.

Home Minister Deshmukh visited the hospital on Tuesday and announced that the accused’s trial would be fast-tracked.

The State government last week flew Navi Mumbai-based National Burns Centre director Sunil Keswani to Nagpur to supervise the woman’s treatment.

It has also appointed well-known lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the case.

According to the victim’s relatives, Nagrale, who was arrested within hours of the incident on February 3, had been harassing her for quite some time.

Nagrale and the woman were friends till two years ago when she severed ties with him due to his “irrational behaviour”, the police earlier said.

A special team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Trupti Jadhav will probe the case, the Wardha Police said last week.

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