WHITE OAK, Pa. — Two of Tyler Jefferson’s three kids are on the road to recovery at Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital after a 30-foot fall from their third-story apartment window in White Oak Monday.
>> 2 children fall from window in Allegheny County
“They’re so strong. I wish everyone could see how strong they are at the hospital. They’re hanging in there,” Jefferson said. “[I’m] super grateful. I don’t even care about my life at this point. I’m just happy that they’re OK.”
Six-year-old Quin fell first. Then moments later, his sister, 3-year-old Elody, followed.
Both have autism and are nonverbal.
“I just thought she was gone. I just thought she was gone,” said Andi Cartwright, who heard both kids fall. “I looked back and I saw her move and it was the best feeling just to know she was still with us.”
Cartwright lives nearby and was walking by the Lincoln School Apartments on Ohio Avenue when she heard Quin fall.
She rushed over to help as he got up to try and run away.
“I didn’t know what was broken on him and I was trying to hold him loosely but not let him run into the street. That’s when I had my back turned to the building and I heard the second child drop,” Cartwright said.
“I thought my daughter was dead,” Jefferson said.
According to Jefferson, both kids have pelvic fractures.
Quin has a fractured leg and Elody has a collapsed lung, but he says both are expected to fully recover.
Meantime, property management company Brandywine Communities had contractors out at the apartment building Tuesday replacing the broken and missing window panes with plexiglass.
“I think what they did today was kind of weird,” Jefferson said. “You go in my house and act like you’re fixing stuff but you’re not fixing anything.”
Jefferson says it’s too little, too late, telling Channel 11 that two of his windows had broken glass in them for more than three months, one being the window his kids fell through Monday.
He says he contacted Brandywine three weeks ago asking for repairs.
“It’s just tough. It’s tough that we messaged them and they didn’t do anything until my kids fell out the window,” Jefferson said.
A statement from Dan Ayer, a Brandywine spokesperson, reads, in part, “While we are unable to comment directly on yesterday’s events because of the ongoing investigation, we are taking steps to ensure something like this cannot — and will not — happen again. We are surveying maintenance concerns in all our units at Lincoln School Apartments, as well as making any needed repairs.”
The statement goes on to say the company is reviewing its process for communicating with residents regarding any issues with their units.
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