Woman catches baby who fell 10 stories
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Hangzhou: A two-year-old Chinese girl left unattended fell 10 stories from her family's apartment window and survived after being caught by a woman passing by, state media reported Sunday.
The toddler was in critical condition Sunday with internal bleeding and other unspecified injuries while the woman who saved her suffered a broken arm, China Central Television and the Xinhua News Agency said.
The girl, named Zhang Fangyu but known by the nickname Niu Niu, was in the care of her grandmother Saturday afternoon when the older woman left the 10th-floor apartment outside the eastern city of Hangzhou to run an errand, CCTV said.
Neighbors saw Niu Niu dangling from the apartment window for several minutes, Xinhua said, and when the girl fell, Wu Juping "kicked off her high-heeled shoes" and ran to catch the child.
"It was so urgent. I saw her when she was about to fall and rushed there, and after tens of seconds she fell off," CCTV quoted Wu as saying.
A 31-year-old mother, Wu told CCTV that when she saw the hanging girl she thought of her own seven-month-old son who had once fallen from a high chair and cut his mouth: "I thought to myself 'I should stretch my arms to her. Because I am right here, I must get her.' Then I made it. I caught her in my arms."
The impact knocked Wu out and sent her crumbling to the ground along with breaking her left arm, the reports said.
CCTV quoted an unidentified doctor at the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang Hospital as saying that a scan showed no damage to Niu Niu's brain but that the girl's abdomen was swollen in a sign of possible injury to organs.
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Woman who saved falling baby hailed, but child remains in commaThe woman whose efforts cushioned the fall of a two-year-old girl who plummeted 10 floors from an apartment has been hailed the "most beautiful mother" by China's netizens.
The toddler, nicknamed Niu Niu, fell around midday Saturday after being left unattended at home in east China's Zhejiang Province.
Thirty-one year old Wu Juping, herself the mother of a seven-month-old child, reached the falling child in time to break the toddler's fall, preventing the girl from hitting the ground at full force.
Wu is now recovering from a broken arm in a hospital that specializes in treating fractures in Fuyang, a city near the provincial capital of Hangzhou.
Wu's heroic action has been detailed on popular micro-blogging websites. Thousands of Internet users expressed their appreciation of Wu.
"In dynamic terms it would be impossible to catch the child, but in a world with love, everything is possible," said a micro-blog user with the screen name of "pamphlet."
Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, the company where Wu works, also called Wu a "heroine" in his micro-blog, and the company declared that it would give Wu 200,000 yuan (30,940 U. S. dollars) as an award for her good deed.
Jin Dengfeng, doctor in charge of Wu's treatment said, since Wu's left arm is suffering from a severe fracture, her forearm could at worst be paralyzed for life.
With a smile on her face, Wu said, "A child is of great importance for the happiness of a whole family. For me, any price is worth paying as long as the child could be saved."
However, Niu Niu is still in critical condition after two days of treatment in Zhejaing Children's Hospital.
The girl who suffered from internal bleeding after hitting the ground, is in a deep coma.
"Almost all her internal organs are injured, and she is suffering severe concussion," said Zhang Chenmei, Niu Niu's doctor.
Zhang is not optimistic. "Whether Niu Niu can finally survive is still unknown," she said.
The story has been forwarded by more than 100,000 Chinese micro-blog users as of Monday afternoon. Many people posted online prays for Wu and the child to recover soon.
