Durban - A 4-year-old boy, who was left alone at home, died after falling from an eighth-floor flat in Durban on Thursday.
Sheldon Dacaler, who lived with his grandparents in their flat in Diakonia Avenue (St Andrew’s Street), near Albert Park, and who had been locked inside the flat, is believed to have climbed on to a couch, then on to a stack of boxes to get to an open window.
Garrith Jamieson, Rescue Care operations director, said their paramedics, EMRS and metro police found the boy lying on the pavement.
He said the boy had no pulse, but paramedics worked for more than 30 minutes to try to revive him.
“However, his injuries were so severe that he passed away at the scene,” Jamieson said.
Sheldon’s grandmother, Nonhlanhla Sithole, said the boy was normally left alone and locked in the room in the morning, when they were at work.
“But our neighbour always looks after him. As usual, Sheldon was asleep when we left him this morning. I don’t know what happened today,” an inconsolable Sithole said.
“He (Sheldon) knows that we leave the key with our neighbour. He would wake up and go to a bathroom window (facing their neighbour’s door) to call someone to open for him,” she said.
The flat has no balconies and the windows are not close to the floor.
However, when the Daily News visited, a cardboard box (the size of a small TV) with a cooler box on top of it were found stacked beneath an open window.
The boxes were alongside a couch.
Residents said they did not even hear a scream from the boy as he fell.
“We came out after hearing a heavy sound at the front of the flats.
“A taxi driver said he saw him coming down, that he saw something falling like a piece of paper.
“Others outside started to shout, then we rushed out to see,” said an elderly woman who did not want to be named.
“His heart was beating slowly when we got to him, and then it stopped,” she said.
When the Daily News arrived, Sheldon’s body, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, was being loaded into an undertaker’s van.
Sheldon’s grandfather, John Sibusiso Khumalo, said he was called home from his carpentry job.
“If it’s God’s will, it is God’s will. He was a wonderful, bright child who loved playing,” the weeping Khumalo said.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, confirmed the incident occurred at about 8.40am.
“It is alleged that the boy woke up, jumped out of an open window and fell. He was pronounced dead by paramedics. Durban Central police are investigating an inquest,” Naicker said.
Daily News