Tot has cranium pieced collectively like a ‘puzzle’ after falling out of bed room window
A tot cheated death after sneaking out of bed during his afternoon name to ‘chat to neighbours’, needing his skull pieced back together ‘like a puzzle’
A four-year-old who plunged 12ft from his window after being put to bed has had his skull fitted back together “like a puzzle” after a balcony broke his fall, saving him from almost certain death.
Sebastian Winrich had been put down for his afternoon nap by his step-dad Chad Poynter, 41, while his mum was at work. But instead of sleeping, he apparently climbed onto the windowsill behind his bed to “chat to neighbours” through the screen.
While leaning on the glass, the American toddler managed to push open the window in his third-floor bedroom. He then fell through it headfirst, landing on the family’s second-floor balcony.
Sebastian’s mum, Meghan Winrich, 34, says Chad heard a “loud boom” that made the floor shake. When the step-dad rushed to the balcony, he found Sebastian lying on the floor.
The mum-of-two received a panicked call from her husband and rushed to hospital. Following a CAT scan and an X-ray, doctors confirmed Sebastian had fractured his skull and suffered a bleed on the brain.
When the bleed grew from 6.2mm to 10mm in a matter of hours, the toddler was airlifted to Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City for an emergency craniotomy.
Sebastian had part of his skull removed to release pressure on his brain before having his head put back together like a “puzzle”. He luckily escaped long-term damage but will have a scar on his head for life.
Meghan says if the balcony hadn’t stopped her son’s fall that day, Sebastian would have died. The cleaning business owner is now speaking out about his accident to urge other parents to put safety locks on their windows.
“Seeing him [Sebastian] in a stretcher, hooked up to all of those things with a neck brace on was awful,” she said.
“When they told me he might need surgery, that’s when my head started spinning. Sitting in the [surgery] waiting room, I was beside myself walking around and pacing. It was the longest hour-and-a-half of my life and I was thinking the worst.”
“It was one of the hardest days of my life. They cut open his head and took out part of his skull to release the pressure and then they put a tube in his head for fluids after the surgery.
“They put his skull back together like a puzzle piece. His skull was put back but he also had plates and screws put in his head too.”
The mum said that the window was already open “a little bit” to let in air.
“What we think happened is he was talking to his neighbour friends [through the window screen],” she said. “I think he was leaning too far onto the screen, which pushed the window open more and he fell out head first.”
But she’s grateful that her son’s accident wasn’t far worse. “His nap time almost cost him his life. If we hadn’t had a balcony under the window, it would have been a very different story,” she said.
Following his surgery, Sebastian spent a night in the Paediatric Critical Care Unit and was then discharged from hospital on October 30th.
Sebastian now wears a skateboard helmet when he leaves the house to protect his head and Meghan has put bumpers on all sharp corners in their house.
She is now urging all parents to put safety locks on their windows to stop this from happening to anyone else.
Meghan said: “I have him wearing a skateboarder helmet when he goes to school and outside to cover his head. Other than that, it shouldn’t affect him long-term.
“I recommend all parents to have safety locks on all their windows because this could have cost my son his life.”
Meghan’s friend has set up a GoFundMe page to help support the family with medical bills.
You can donate to Sebastian’s GoFundMe here
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