15-story apartmentbuilding inNew Zealand, after attempting to get into
his locked apartment from a balcony above.
An American emergency roomdoctor said the chances of living through a
fall from thatheight are about 1 in 100.
The man, identified by the New Zealand Herald as Tom Stilwell, a
British man in Auckland on a "working holiday," returned home after a
night out with friends and found he did not have a key to get into his
locked apartment. Stilwell tried to jump down to his balcony from the
balcony of the apartment above, but instead plummeted to the roof of a
building below.
Stilwell's story astounded his doctors in New Zealand as well as in
the United States.
"It made me wonder what theroof looked like that he fell on," said Dr.
Nicholas Kman, associate professor of emergency medicine at The Ohio
State University Medical Center.
"It's pretty abnormal for someone to fall that far and survive," Kman
said. "For every fall like that, the odds of living are very rare."
Doctors use a formula called "lethal doses" to determine the
likelihood of death in a fall. At four stories, or about 48 feet above
the ground, halfwill survive. But at seven stories or 84 feet, only 10
percent are expected to live — that is, 90 percent will die, according
to Kman.
According to local reports, Stilwell fell 13 stories. At first,he was
in critical condition at Auckland City Hospital, but was later
upgraded to satisfactory with neck and back fractures, a broken wrist
and suspected internal injuries.
ABCNews.com reached out to the hospital, but its public affairs office
was closed because of the time zone difference.
Stilwell's upstairs neighbor, Geraldine Bautista, 28, told the Herald
that he knocked onher door on the 15th floor of the Volt Apartment
building at about 2 a.m., asking if he could jump off her balcony onto
his to get into his own apartment.
According to the Herald, he went straight to the balcony and Bautista
grabbed his hand, but he fell.
"It happened so fast," she toldthe newspaper. "It happened within
seconds. I couldn't even scream for help. He was like a paper falling
from here."
Friends said that Stilwell had "a fair bit to drink" before
theincident, according to the Herald.
Doctors say that although there is no evidence that alcohol softens
the blow to the body, they have heard that anecdotally about car
accident victims.
"There is no science behind that," Kman said. "Most doctors are
reluctant to say it happens. But in my experience in trauma, it does
seem to be something that happens. But that is not likelyfrom a fall."
A person's age, the height of the fall, the nature of the surface hit
and the body part that first touches the ground are all factors in the
severity of the injuries and the prognosis for recovery.
"If you fall out of a tree and hit a bunch of branches, it may slow
the fall," he said. "Landing on grass is better than cement."
Head injuries have the lowest survival rate, according to Kman.
Other dangerous injuries occurwhen a person lands feet first.
"The heel hits and transmits the force up the back," he said. "When
someone jumps off a parking garage or building they break their heel
bones and then the lower spine. When they break the feet, we always
X-ray the back, because that's a common injury."
Sometimes, paralysis can occur if there is a spinal cord injury.
Emergency room doctors see most fall victims during the summer months,
and they are usually window cleaners working on scaffolding and
roofers.
Falls are most common among the elderly, the secondcause of unintended
death fortrauma behind motor vehicle accidents, according to Kman.
"Young healthy kids have better outcomes than the elderly," he said.
In the animal world, cats fare much better than humans.
Last year, Sugar the cat, fell out of a 19-story apartment building in
Boston and survived, probably because she landed on a pile of
mulch.The local animal rescue league reported that after the fall, the
cat ran back into the apartment building.
The reason, say veterinary researchers is that cats have a larger
surface area for their weight as they fall with legs extended, which
gives them a lower terminal velocity — about 60 mph, compared to an
average-sized male at about 120 mph. When cats hitthe ground, they
have fewer injuries.
In physics, terminal velocity isthe constant speed attained by a body
while falling through a gas or liquid.
"Terminal velocity is something that plays into this," Kman said. "But
people are not meant to fall off three-story buildings. And I have a
feeling that you reach [terminal velocity] some pointbefore 15
floors."
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