Child Seriously Hurt in Fall From a 3rd-Floor Window

An 18-month-old girl was seriously injured Friday when she tumbled through an open window at her Canoga Park apartment complex and fell three stories into a patch of ivy, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

Erica Maier was in serious condition at Childrens Hospital in Hollywood with a collapsed lung, a ruptured spleen and a broken eye socket, said hospital spokeswoman Maria Iacobo.

The incident occurred about 8:30 a.m. at the Oakwood Apartments complex in the 22400 block of Victory Boulevard near Shoup Avenue. A parent was in the apartment at the time.

“The child crawled out on the dresser that’s in front of the window,” apartment manager Susan Diehl said. The child “pushed out the screen and fell through the tree and into the ivy,” she said. A small tree beneath the window broke the child’s fall, Fire Department spokesman Michael Little said.

Ed Nelson, who lives beneath the child’s apartment, heard a noise and when he opened his drapes he saw the girl in the ivy.

“She was very lucky to have landed where she landed,” said Nelson, who called authorities.

The child was “in and out of consciousness” when he found her, he said. Paramedics treated the child and she was taken by helicopter to Childrens Hospital.