serious a 7-year-old child
It was a matter of millimeters, just a few, to mark the boundary between the domestic accident and the tragedy. Mattia could have lost his life (we’ll call him that), a seven-year-old boy who yesterday afternoon while playing football in the courtyard was hit in the head by a cabinet that accidentally fell from the balcony of his uncle’s house. One of those dish racks that used to be used for afar were drying it and was working and that his uncle, a 60-year-old Roman, had removed from the wall because he was repainting the kitchen.
THE DYNAMICS
During the operations, the man picked up the cabinet and headed for the balcony. He should have placed it there, alongside other furniture for a distant place in the room and easily repaint each wall. But on the way he tripped, lost his balance and the dish drainer flew downstairs. In the courtyard was Mattia who was kicking a ball after school. That piece of furniture, weighing no more than two kilos, hit him on the head, fortunately, but not so sharply and violently. From the balcony the uncle starts yelling: “Oh my God, what have I done?” The carabinieri of the Tor Bella Monaca station arrive but it is immediately clear that it was an accident. The child’s parents, away for work, arrive out of breath while Mattia is always vigilant.
WITH THE MILITARIES
Until the ambulance arrives, the Arma soldiers talk to him just to keep him awake: “What team do you support?” second grade “an important class, you know, then I’m good and I have a lot of fun”. Only when in via Talia, that small street in the heart of Torre Angela, the 118 health workers arrive Mattia is frightened: “Don’t leave me alone, don’t let me die,” he whispers through the tears that have wet his face in the meantime. With him there is also his mother and father who will follow him, holding him by the hand, to the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital while other health workers will take care of his uncle who is sick with fright.
AT THE EMERGENCY ROOM
Entering the red code in the emergency room, the little one is immediately subjected to a whole series of tests which fortunately will exclude the most serious scenarios. Even the tac carried out gives a negative result: the blow was, yes, it was strong – after all the cabinet fell from a height of nine meters and weighed a little – but it hit him without causing incurable injuries. The doctors have admitted him to the ordinary ward and he remains under observation for at least a day, then he can go home and forget about this bad accident.
Meanwhile, the military has promptly reconstructed the dynamics, which was then the one told by the boy’s uncle. The man held that cabinet in his hands after having disassembled from the compartment above the sink, on the balcony there were already other furniture and but as he was about to place it on a table – at least that was the goal – he lost the balance by tripping over perhaps a rope or the partition of the French window frame. Couldn’t hold the dish rack which fell off. Unfortunately, at that moment the grandson was right down there playing football. “If it had been more serious or if he had even died – the 60-year-old seems to have said – I would never have forgiven myself”.
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