THANE: This child was plain lucky. A 2-year-old boy rolled down from his third-floor balcony and has survived to gurgle the tale. The child escaped with minor injuries, but is doing well.
The baby tumbled out from an opening that had been made in the balcony wall as painting work was going on in the family’s home at Dombivli Sunday afternoon. As luck would have it, a young cricket player who happened to be in the compound below saw something falling out. The cricketer rushed in the direction of the falling child and extended his hands to grab the 2-year-old.
The child landed right on his stretched forearms, which cushioned the impact of the fall — roughly some 30 feet below the balcony of the family’s apartment located on the third-storey. The baby landed with a heavy thud and further rolled onto the ground due to which he sustained some minor injury. The child is being treated in hospital.
Up in the flat, the child’s parents had stepped out of the house. The boy was in the care of his uncle who had just walked into the kitchen when the child would have hobbled into the balcony. Work of painting the house was on.
The painter had gone out to have lunch. Before leaving, he had pulled out the iron grille and sliding window glass that stood at the floor-level of the balcony. The opening in the wall was enough for a child to go overboard.
With the uncle in the kitchen, the painter away, the baby went crawled into the balcony and all hell broke loose until the saviour, Bhavesh Mhatre, walked into the compound of the 13-storey building at Devichapada, and was quick to figure out what was happening.
The baby’s saviour told TOI, “Not dropping a catch is something I am used to with cricket. I am glad this helped save a child’s life.”
He said he had rushed on an impulse. As he was sprinting towards the falling child, a passer-by crossed his path. “I had no choice but to push him away,” he said.
The baby’s family met the saviour to express their gratitude to him.
