A 4-year-old Filipino girl miraculously survived — albeit with serious injuries — a four-story fall after being left alone in an HDB unit at Singapore’s residential town, Tampines last Friday.
Sachi Hailey Unique Cruz came to Singapore with her grandmother for a vacation on Apr. 1, staying with the girl’s mother at Block 836 along Tampines Street 82. Working as a restaurant customer service officer here, the mother was unable to attend the child’s graduation ceremony, so the girl visited her instead.
The 24-year-old mother, Jenica Julien Santelices, informed The Straits Times that the grandmother had left the child alone at home last Friday night to buy food from the market.
Twenty minutes later, when the grandmother returned from the market, she saw police officers at the foot of the block. When Sachi was nowhere to be found in the apartment — which had a window left open — she went downstairs to find the girl lying on the ground. Apparently, the girl had opened a window by herself and fell, landing on her upper back.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force confirmed to ST that they responded to the scene at 9:15pm and conveyed the child to Changi General Hospital.
Sachi survived but suffered internal hemorrhage on her lungs and liver as well as fractures on her spine and shoulder. According to Santelices, the internal bleeding has stopped and a pending MRI scan will reveal if the girl needs an operation.
With hospitalization bills continuing to mount, the mother has since turned to the kindness of strangers to help fund the medical costs via crowdfunding. A campaign seeking S$20,000 (US$15,267.50) in donations has been launched on Youcaring.com — of which over S$16,000 (US$12,213.85) has been raised as of writing.
For now, Sachi’s still holding strong, according to Facebook updates by Santelices.
Reader Interactions