In what can only be described as a miracle, a baby survived an 11-story fall from the balcony of an apartment building in Minneapolis. Fifteen-month-old Musa Dayib is believed to have slipped through the rails of his family’s apartment balcony, where he plunged around 100 feet to the ground. While such a fall would have a very different outcome in most cases, Musa survived and is expected to recover.
The baby fell 11 stories to the ground on Sunday night. His father, Guled Ahmed, was reportedly grabbing something from the kitchen when his daughter saw Musa lying on the ground and told her dad that the baby fell. After Ahmed ran downstairs, he found his son on the ground in a pile of mulch, still breathing and just inches from a sidewalk.
Check out the photo of the apartment building below to get an idea of just how far the child fell.
Boy survives 11-story fall from Minneapolis high-rise http://t.co/dU8GtKxCAx pic.twitter.com/2IBnkqFG8U
— U.S. News (@usnews) May 14, 2014
The baby that survived the 11-story fall is recovering in the hospital. Even though young Musa has a concussion and several broken bones and is in critical condition, he is expected to recover.
“Little (kids) are more flexible and don’t break as easily as we do and he also fell in a very small patch of mulch,” Dr. Tina Slusher said, explaining why Musa could survive a fall that would kill most people. “It’s definitely a miracle. It’s God’s gift to his family. Kids don’t fall this far and make it often. Especially without a serious brain injury. You or I would’ve been dead.”
See a picture of Musa in the hospital below.
God is a miracle worker!! RT @13NewsNow: 'Miracle baby' survives 11-story balcony fall http://t.co/zoVbSCl3nt pic.twitter.com/LLOeU6MMBO
— Née (@NeeRozay) May 14, 2014
Even though the 11-story fall could have certainly had a much different ending for the baby, it is possible that the accident could have been avoided had the owners of the Riverside Plaza apartment building updated the building’s balconies during a recent renovation. The balcony rails were spaced 5.5 inches apart; the current state building code for rail spacing is 4 inches apart. The rails on the Riverside Plaza balconies met code when it was constructed, and the state of Minnesota doesn’t require building owners to make changes when the code is updated.
“I don’t think my brother and his wife will recover from this. They really torture themselves,” said Abdirahim Ahmed, Guled’s brother. “How can we protect the kids that stay in here? Something gotta be done. Something gotta be done.”
George Sherman, the the president of the company that manages Riverside Plaza, said that they plan to put more safety features in place to hopefully avoid future accidents. “(We are) looking at more permanent locks that the fire department approves,” Sherman said.
Image via YouTube