COUNTYWIDE : Open Windows Can Endanger Children

Two-year-old Arrica Aldridge still suffers headaches and nightmares from the day she tumbled from a second-story window in her Dana Point apartment.

She and her mother, Sharon S. Aldridge, 22, had been sitting on a sofa when Arrica stood up, lost her balance and leaned against the window screen.

“The screen popped out, and she went right out with it,” Aldridge said.

This month, an 18-month-old girl fell head-first onto a concrete driveway from a second-story window in Anaheim and was treated for skull and shoulder fractures at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Last year, that hospital saw six such cases.

Falls from second-story windows accounted for 60% of the hospitalizations of children age 4 and under last year at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, said Pam Holmquist, the hospital’s trauma coordinator.

“As one child after another came into the hospital, we realized that we had a sort of mini-epidemic of kids falling out of windows,” said Dr. Gary Goodman, a pediatric intensive-care specialist.

Health officials fear such accidents will continue--especially as spring approaches and windows are opened--because parents don’t realize how easily they can happen. In most cases, children had climbed on furniture that had been pushed up to a window.

“A few of the kids were bouncing on their beds and literally flew out the window,” Holmquist said.

The number of children seen at hospitals may be only a fraction of those who fall, Goodman said. Others simply aren’t hurt enough to need attention.

Linda Baldwin, the trauma coordinator at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, said that several children have died from two-story falls during the 10 years that she has worked in the trauma unit. While no figures are kept, she said, “anecdotally, I can tell you that this is a significant problem.”

Last year in Santa Ana, Delfina Martinez looked out the open window of her apartment and saw her 3-year-old son, who had been playing in the living room moments earlier, sprawled on the pavement four stories below.

Through what doctors called amazing luck, the little boy not only survived but suffered no permanent injuries.

Arrica Aldridge was not as lucky. On Nov. 17, she fell head-first onto a concrete driveway. Her mother ran to find her unconscious and temporarily unable to breathe. Arrica’s skull was fractured from the impact of the fall.

“Arrica’s set back a lot since the accident,” her mother said. “She used to be potty-trained; she’s not anymore. She needs a bottle again, and she gets tired easily. She’s like a 1-year-old again.

“One thing I think all parents should know is CPR. They said that if I hadn’t known how to do that, she may not have made it to the hospital.”

Capt. Larry Drake of the Orange County Fire Department said the problem “is not with the screens or in the construction of the window or with the city building codes. Screens are not meant to hold people back. Parents shouldn’t leave windows wide open or place furniture underneath them that allow children to climb up.”

However, he said, “we discourage people from putting iron bars on windows, because in a fire, people get trapped inside.”

Drake said that there are a number of other devices that can be placed on a window to allow ventilation but limit the size of the opening to prevent children from falling out.