Durban -
It is every parent’s worst nightmare. You leave a toddler unattended for a few seconds and she finds herself in mortal danger - in this case, falling head-first out of a window.
That is what happened to 18-month-old Talia Arumugam of Phoenix this week when she squeezed through the burglar guards of her family’s double-storey home.
While falling almost 4m, Talia hit a ledge before landing head-first on concrete. “Miraculously,” said her relieved parents, she survived, and bruises aside, is in good spirits.
According to Mirska Arumugam, 32, her daughter had been playing in her parents’ bedroom on Monday morning when she managed to climb onto the bed and reach the window ledge.
Mirska said she had gone into the next room when she heard the child’s grandmother, Miriam Arumugam, scream.
“I was sitting in the lounge when out of the blue I heard a loud thud. When I looked to my left I saw my darling baby’s head bouncing off the ground,” said Miriam, who dashed downstairs.
“I screamed with horror for Mirska. My first impression was that Talia was dead because she did not even cry. She was just silent - probably in absolute shock.”
Mirska grabbed Talia to comfort her.
“I was upstairs with her and went into the next room. It was just a matter of few seconds. She somehow made her way through a small gap in the burglar-guard of our building.”
She said the child fell, hitting a ledge on her way down, “before she landed on the ground”.
Mirska rushed her daughter to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, where X-rays were taken. Talia was treated for bruising to her face, before being transferred to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital for further scans, the mother said.
After being kept for the mandatory 24-hour observation, the baby was given the all-clear.
Mother and daughter were back home on Tuesday.
“Everything happened so fast,” Mirska said.
“Talia moves like lightning and we always watch over her all the time.
“I don’t ever want to go through something like that again. God saved our baby.”
Talia’s dad, Shane Arumugam, 30, was overwhelmed with relief when he found his daughter had no serious injuries. “It was really miraculous she survived,” he said. - Daily News