ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A 4-year-old boy is in stable condition after falling about 10 feet from a second-floor window Tuesday afternoon, according to St. Johns County Fire Rescue.
Rescuers were called to Milton Street in St. Augustine just before 2 p.m.
The boy was conscious and breathing and taken to Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, rescuers said.
Witnesses said the child was upstairs sleeping while painting crews were in the home working.
The family recently moved to the neighborhood from Colorado, and while painting crews were working, the child's au pair opened windows to air out the home.
Witnesses said the au pair saw the boy get up from his nap, head to a window and pushed on a screen just hard enough and fell through. They said the au pair tried to grab him before he fell, but was unable to.
The au pair went outside to the boy, who was crying and complained of stomach pains.
Witnesses told Channel 4 Tuesday that it is a miracle the little boy didn't die after falling out of the window.
"I heard a thump and you know, a thump," said Chuck Lambeth.
Lambeth, a painter at the house who's a retired firefighter, saw what happened and helped the child before emergency crews arrived.
"She said she grabbed his leg, so that meant that his legs were the last thing to come out of the window, which means he was falling, I suppose, head first," said Lambeth.
Lambeth said he called 911 and checked on the boy's younger sister, who was also taking a nap upstairs.
"I checked him over for any breaks or excessive sore spots that he was particularly hurting from, and other than a complaint of his stomach area hurting, he checked out fine to me," Lambeth said.
Channel 4's crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson weighed in on the accident Tuesday night. Jefferson said parents can learn from this accident.
"The first thing that comes to mind is that small children are very adventurous. They're curious, they're curious as to how things work. They're curious as to what's going to happen if they try something," said Jefferson. "At 4 years old, parents have to train their children and constantly re-train because of the memory lapse, because of the curiosity, because they said, 'Don't do it,' that encourages them in their mind to try it."