Family praying for toddler after horror fall from second storey
FAMILY members and neighbours were last night praying for the recovery of a toddler who was injured after falling from the second floor of an apartment block.
It is understood the boy fell from the top floor of the complex onto the decking of an apartment on the ground floor.
The accident happened at the Cuirt an Óir complex on the Athlone Road in Longford town yesterday at around 10.30am.
The little boy is understood to be three years old. His mother was yesterday named locally as Melissa Teague.
Seámus Sheridan, who lives in the complex, said he let the boy’s mother into his apartment following the accident, and that she climbed across a small wooden divide to the neighbouring apartment to rescue her son.
‘The girl had the little baby in her arms. I was trying to cover them as much as I could,’ he said. ‘He was opening and closing his eyes... he had his little fingers now inside his mouth.’
Mr Sheridan – whose son Nathan was with him at the time – said the injured boy was breathing at the scene.
He said the aftermath of the accident ‘was terrible to see’ and that it is his understanding that the boy fell from a window on the top floor of the complex.
Mr Sheridan said they called the emergency services and gardaí were at the scene within minutes, with an ambulance arriving shortly afterwards.
He said the mother was accompanied by a woman and that a male – believed to be the young
‘Is my baby going to be okay?’
boy’s father – arrived shortly afterwards.
Mr Sheridan said he tried to comfort the family while they waited for paramedics.
He added: ‘I tried to keep her as calm as possible. I said, “Stay calm, your baby is going to be okay, there is help on the way”.’
He said the devastated mother said: ‘Is my baby going to be okay?’ and, ‘Please, wake up’.
A shaken Mr Sheridan said his ‘heart went out to the little baby’ who, he said, was just wearing a nappy at the time.
According to her open and public Facebook profile, Melissa Teague is a mother of seven who grew up in Farnagh, on the outskirts of Longford city.
Part of her biography states that she ‘loves my seven babies to the moon and back’.
A local Facebook page called The Longford Eye last night published a post about the boy’s condition. It stated: ‘The Longford Eye has an update regarding the little boy sent in from one of our readers. He has NO broken bones and NO internal bleeding thank God! He’s not out of the woods yet but so long as there was no bleeds in the organs or brain or breaks and fractures that is positive news.’
Mr Sheridan said it was by chance that he was there to help as he and his son had arranged to meet elsewhere that morning, but changed their plans at the last minute. It is understood the ambulance received a Garda escort through the town and that the little boy was later transferred to Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin.
Fianna Fáil Longford councillor Seámus Butler said last night: ‘This is a terrible tragedy and your heart just goes out to his parents and siblings. It is everyone’s nightmare to hear of a child involved in an incident like this.’