Toddler injured in 2-story plunge
The boy is in serious condition after getting through an iron railing
A 2-year-old boy was in serious condition after falling from a two-story Waipahu apartment building yesterday afternoon.
Maverick Fiti was playing on the walkway outside his family's second-floor apartment, 94-232-F Aniani Place, when he squeezed through the wrought-iron railing and fell to the pavement.
The toddler was crying and responsive, his aunt Jerlyn Fiti said through neighbor Linda Tarry, who acted as an interpreter.
The boy landed on his bottom and also struck the side of his face, but there were no open wounds, Fiti said.
The 2-year-old was taken by ambulance to the Queen's Medical Center in serious condition with possible multisystem trauma, said Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department. Emergency Medical Services received the call at 1:37 p.m.
"Of course, the mother cried," Tarry said. Both the boy's mother, Charity Fiti, and grandmother accompanied the boy to the hospital.
"It's very sad," Tarry said. "Good thing he survived."
Maverick is the only child of Charity Fiti and her husband, who was at work at the time of the accident.
Jerlyn Fiti said another aunt was near the boy on the walkway. While she was sitting on the steps, he somehow went through the rails, which are spaced at most about 5 1/2 inches apart.
The two-story walkup is home to a number of small children, who were outside playing downstairs yesterday afternoon.
"We have to watch closely our children," Tarry said.
In the past few years, a number of children have fallen from apartment buildings.
» A 7-year-old boy was injured in August in a fall from the third floor of an apartment building in Kalihi.
» In August 2005 a 2-year-old boy died after plunging 14 stories from a University Avenue apartment.
» In February 2005, Ashli Alcala-Romero, 2, fell through a fourth-floor railing of a Nuuanu apartment building and was in stable condition days afterward.