Man Hurt in 8-Story Fall During Hotel Party
A 35-year-old Yorba Linda man attending a St. Patrick’s Day office party was seriously injured early Friday when he plunged eight stories from a balcony at the Embassy Suites Hotel at 1325 E. Dyer Road, Santa Ana police said.
The man, identified by police as Jerry Higgins, was reported in guarded but stable condition late Friday at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. Higgins was being treated for head injuries and a fractured leg, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Police said that details of the accident are sketchy. Investigators are trying to determine whether Higgins fell, jumped or was pushed over the chest-high balcony railing, police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said.
She and hotel manager Vincent G. Neal refused to identify the company that sponsored the party. At Higgins’ home, a woman who identified herself as his wife would not provide information about the accident.
The party was being held in one of the eighth-floor rooms, Thomas said. The rooms open onto balconies which surround an indoor courtyard at the center of the building.
At 2:30 p.m. Higgins plunged from the eighth floor to an open-air bar on the first floor, Thomas said. His fall was broken when he struck a wooden lattice over the bar.
No one else was injured, she said.
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