A Poway child was in critical condition Friday after falling from a second-story window at his home.
DJ, 6, was trying to trap a fly against a screen window when the screen gave way and DJ fell through.
The accident happened Tuesday afternoon, his grandmother Kathy Ricks said.
“I got a call from my daughter about 3 p.m. in the afternoon and she's hysterical,” Ricks said. “They live on a dirt road, so the ambulance would never be able to find them. So she got the baby in the car, took him to Circle K and called in 911 the car.”
The ambulance came and took DJ to Rady Children’s Hospital. DJ has bruised eyes, a lacerated liver and two broken arms.
The news was for his mother to bear.
“She actually said she passed out,’ Ricks said. “And she said, ‘Mom, he looks really bad.’ And I said, ‘It's going to be OK.’”
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Ricks is a nursing assistant in an emergency room. She's seen trauma before but it's different when it's your own.
“It’s hard when you go into the room and he says, ‘Mommy I hurt,’” she said.
DJ still has a long road of recovery ahead of him.
He’s been in the intensive care unit since — a hard place to live for a 6-year-old that otherwise would be out playing baseball or going on end-of-year-class picnics right now.
Still, his family feels fortunate.
“I know somebody else was watching out for him too and that's what kept him from hitting the ground head first and this from being much worse,” Ricks said. “Like I said, I knew what to expect, but it still shocked me as human.”
DJ’s CT scans came back clean Friday and he’s expected to make a full recovery, Ricks said.
Ricks has set up a GoFundMe to help offset DJ’s medical costs. As of Friday, it has raised $3,431.
