A child aged one year and nine months from Chisinau died when he fell from the ninth floor of an apartment building where he lived with his family. According to the Emergency Medicine Center, being unsupervised, the boy went up on the windowsill and, leaning on the mosquito net, fell out.
Contacted by phone by IPN, the Center’s spokesman Petru Cravet said the ambulance doctors only stated the child’s death when they arrived at the scene. The incident happened on Petru Zadnipru St in Chisinau in the evening of May 11. Now that the weather grew warmer, the adults open the windows without realizing the dangers to which the kids are thus exposed. Statistics show the number of cases when children fall from height increases. Some of these suffer serious injuries, while others do not survive.
Petru Cravet said the grownups consider if the window has a mosquito net, there are no dangers for the kids. But this is not so. The net can fall when it is pushed slightly, even by a child. When airing the room, the adults should not leave the children alone in the room or should go out with them for a walk in the period. Another solution is to open the windows vertically, from down to up.
As to balconies, the kids’ access to this part of the house must be restricted as this is a very dangerous place. There should be no tables, chairs or stands on the balcony or near the window as the children can mount them and can fall out. Continuous supervision is the best child protection measure.
According to the data of the National Health Management Center, more than 2,000 children under five sustained injuries in Moldova last year. Over 40 of these died. A study carried out within the Regionalization of the Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Services in Moldova Project (REPEMOL), 66% of the parents realize the risks to which their children are exposed in the home.
