Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Fifty-two-year-old Stephen St. Bernard, an MTA bus driver from Brooklyn, just happened to be walking home when he heard shouts coming from a crowd of people gathered outside his apartment building, pointing at a window three stories overhead. He looked up and saw a little girl standing on an air-conditioning unit, moving around, "seemingly unafraid." St. Bernard, on the other hand, was afraid. He knew what was going to happen next.
"I just prayed that I'd catch her," he said later.
"'Please let me catch her, please let me catch her.' That's all I could say."
And because every so often, life imitates one of those feel-good, fairy tale, miracles really do happen type movies ...
He did! Stephen St. Bernard DID catch the 7-year-old girl as she fell from that air conditioning unit three stories above. And the whole thing was caught on tape!
"I picked her up and carried her ... She kept looking around. She never closed her eyes. She never lost consciousness."
Yeah, thanks to YOU she never lost consciousness! According to neighbors, the autistic girl, named Keyla, apparently pushed the unit's plastic accordion partitions to the side to climb outside and on to the air conditioner. (Thank god the whole thing didn't come tumbling down!!)
The scariest part -- to me and probably most other moms, anyway -- is that Keyla's mother was actually in the apartment when she climbed out the window but was distracted taking care of her other child and didn't notice. (And if you have more than one child, you KNOW how easily this could happen to anyone.)
Anyway, thankfully Keyla suffered only very minor injuries, while St. Bernard tore a tendon in his shoulder ("a small price to pay," he says).
Phew! I guess we can all exhale now. And the moral of the story is ... childproof your windows, even if you think you don't have to, because Stephen St. Bernard is clearly out of commission for a while.
Does this story scare you? Inspire you? Or both?
Ashley Is a Widow Who Stays Strong...
This Hot Dad Wants to Vacuum Your Rug
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
Comments 21
not just fireproof your windows but you know actually pay attention to where your child is would also work too. I mean how did that girls parents not realize their child was standing on the window ac unit? how did she get out onto it in the first place and them not notice? thankfully that man was there to catch her otherwise she could have been killed due to her parents not paying attention
God bless that man, God bless that little girl, and God bless anyone who judges that mother without walking in her shoes! o.O
My 11 year old son has severe autism. I try my very hardest every single day to keep him safe, but it is a full time job. If you don't live with autism and the exhausting difficulties that come along with it, you don't know. Autistic children have no fear, and no sense of danger. We are only human and I am sure this mother never thought for a second her child would push aside the plastic accordion piece around the air unit and crawl out the window. She may have went into another room for 5 minutes and this could happen. My son is also a climber and my home is locked down like a prison to keep him from eloping, but this could be ME. I'm a good mother, but these children are an entirely different experience. Have some empathy for what mothers like her are up against every day instead of immediately judging.
Amen Jackie!! Our kids can be so damn quick, it's scary as hell!!
Wow, are any of you people that are judging so harshly the parent of an autistic kid?? No, then shut up. I'm sorry, I can't be nice about that. You have NO idea what you are talking about. Ausitic children aren't like other children. They are very curious and a lot of them are very quick. I'm sure this childs mother is beside herself!! SO thankful that man was there and that this story had a happy ending!! I'm sure they will be taking every step necessary to ensure there house is sealed up tight.
*I know children in general are curious, but your average child is fearful of what they should be fearful of so their curiousity isn't quite the same.