Crumbling Building Facade Leaves Toddler in Critical Condition
Falling bricks from an Upper West Side apartment building critically injured a two-year-old who was visiting with her grandmother Sunday, the New York Times reports.
The child was apparently walking with her grandmother outside the Esplanade Manhattan building, a home for the elderly on West End Avenue when the bricks fell off an eighth floor windowsill.
Susan Frierson, 60, was holding granddaughter Greta Greene at around 11:05 a.m. on West End Avenue near 74th Street when a chunk of brick from the Esplanade Manhattan nursing home fell eight stories and hit the child, authorities said.
“I saw the grandma stagger. She was holding the baby in her arms,” said Nelson Amaya, 38, the doorman of a nearby building.
Good Samaritans, including a nurse from the senior center, rushed to the pair’s aid, telling the grandmother to lie on a nearby bench and administering CPR to the unconscious, bloodied toddler.
The grandmother was also struck but apparently suffered only minor injuries.
A Buildings Department spokesperson tells the Times the building has been issued an administrative code violation. The building has received similar violations in the past, the Post reports.
The dangerous exterior has gotten them in trouble before. In 2010-2011, the owners paid the DOB $6,467 in fines for failing to show they had performed a facade inspection on time.
Disrepair to the front of building appeared obvious from the street — with at least two other exterior window sills missing bricks.
The child is reportedly currently on life support.
[image via Esplanade Manhattan]
