7:10am Thursday 29th July 2010
By Matt Watts
A tearful mum has described the “miracle” moment her 14-month-old toddler survived a 25-ft drop from the window of her Streatham Park home.
Teyjha Mitchell plummeted three storeys and hit hard ground while playing with her brother, Shakeem, three, in her Fayland Avenue home.
It is believed she climbed on to a sofa below the window, and pushed it open before toppling out.
But Teyjha, who landed on her front and side, received only a few small bruises, amazing paramedics and doctors – who treated her with Calpol.
Her mum, Khion Brown, 24, told the Streatham Guardian: “It’s a real miracle. The doctors told me she could have died. My friends told me it must have been angels who caught her as she fell.”
She described the terrifying moments after the incident occurred at Shelburne House, at about 11am on Monday, July 19.
The full-time mum said: “It was the worst few seconds. My son ran into the kitchen where I was cooking, looking scared, and said ‘Mum, Teyjha is lying down on the floor outside’.
“I ran in to the living room and looked out of the window. She was just lying there. I thought I had lost her.”
Hysterical, she ran down stairs to the grass area where her daughter was lying on her front.
She said: “She opened her eyes and I saw she was OK.
I started crying and that’s when she started crying.”
Witnesses said the baby fell yards from where a gardener was mowing the lawn.
Will Morgan, 64, an electrician who was working in the flat above, said: “Within minutes there were police, ambulances and the air ambulance there. The paramedics were very careful. They put the baby in a neck brace.”
Inflatable supports were put around her on a stretcher before the toddler was rushed by road to St George’s Hospital.
Builder, Mike Hall, 64, said: “The mum was just hysterical. She was held back from holding the baby because no one knew how bad the injuries were.”
The toddler remained under observation, and received a series of scans in hospital – but after no serious injuries were found she was treated with Calpol.
Mum and baby returned home from hospital together last Thursday night.
Miss Brown, who lives alone in the flat with her two children, said she wanted to warn other parents to check their homes were safe.
She said the window’s clasp was not working but it had now been screwed shut.
She said: “I’m not a bad mother, I just spent two minutes away from them.”
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