Unattended boy falls from 4th floor

A 5-year-old boy survived a fall from a fourth-floor apartment at a wholesale market in Baoshan district Monday after his parents left him home alone, Shanghai Television Station reported.

The incident illustrates the problem of unattended children falling from buildings, a major cause of death among young children, especially during the summer when school is out.

The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention has found that about 20 local children died of unnatural causes each year in July and August from 2006 to 2010, with falling from high places listed as one of the most common causes, the Wenhui Daily reported. Of the children who died from falls, about 43 percent were unattended.

The boy's parents worked at the wholesale market trading watermelons, according to the market's director, surnamed Zhou. They were renting an apartment on the fourth floor of a partially converted warehouse building at the market.

The market's management signed a lease with the parents that forbid them from leaving their child home alone, Zhou told the Global Times. Management even put up a notice to remind the business owners to look after their children during the summer school break.

The couple, who was from outside Shanghai, usually took the boy with them when they opened their business around 8 am, a manager surnamed Shu told the Global Times. However, the mother left the boy locked in their apartment Monday morning because he wanted to sleep a little longer. His bed was located next to the bedroom window.

The boy, who was not identified, was next seen hanging outside of the window around 8:25 am. Wang Jianzhong, 59, a market employee, heard someone crying and looked up to find the boy hanging from the window frame, said Wang's daughter, Wang Yeping. The elder Wang and several other market employees gathered underneath the window to try to catch the boy.

"My father reached up to catch the boy, but the boy missed his arms and fell on his shoulder," Wang Yeping told the Global Times.

The 15-meter fall knocked both of them to the ground, Wang Yeping said. They were both sent to the hospital for treatment.

The boy suffered a fractured jaw from landing face first, according to a nurse from Changhai Hospital of Shanghai. The injury required surgery, but it wasn't life threatening.

Wang Jianzhong injured nerves in his spine and right arm, said Wang Huidong, an emergency room doctor at No.3 People's Hospital. Wang was still under observation Monday at the hospital.

On Sunday evening, a 7-year-old girl and her 5-year-old sister died after falling from a 13th floor apartment in Pudong New Area while their migrant parents were working at the restaurant they owned, the news website xinmin.cn reported.