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?
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Comments 21
I don't even have an autistic child and my heart literally stopped and I got chills! all that matters is THANK GOD AND THAT MAN THAT THE GIRL IS OK!!!
children with autism like my 6 year old daughter has, think that they are super human they lack all common sense and for those who are bashing FUCK off, the parents believed that the child was laying down for a nap not trying to sneak out of the window. If you dont have a child with special needs count your blessings, cause parents like myself and those who have commented take one day and one moment at a time with kids like these. You never know what there going to do and there is no way to prepare for every thing and anything.
i have 2 boys a 7 year old who is autistic and an almost 3 year old and i know how had it is to keep an eye on my 7 year old when i have to take care of my 3 year old so when i have to leave the room for my 3 year old and my 7 year old is at home he comes with me, weird as it is if i go to the bathroom or i take his brother i will yell across the house his name and tell him i love him just so he'll say it back so i know he's ok. so i can get how the mom was busy with one and not noticing what the other did but with autism you have to be that extra guarded. at the start our house was child proof now we have hit melvyn (my 7 year old) proof if we think it might happen we set up a guard. i know paranoid but this or him running into danger at all and not being afraid of stuff he should scares me so bad. the mom was so lucky there was this great man who saved her little girl. he is a good guy for doing the right thing at the right time
My children arnt autistic but Ive been around kids that are and this could happen to anyone, Don't judge this mother, I'm just glad this had an happy ending. God bless this family and the bus driver.
I don't have children with Autism. Shoot, even though I work with kids I am currently pregnant with my first child. I do know though that anything can happen with a blink of an eye. I am very glad to hear that the girl is okay. And I am very thankful that this man was able to help her. Stories like this, with a happy ending are the best to read. Made me want to cry.
i work w/ autistic and special needs people, and i can honestly say this does not surprise me. Eloping is very common w/ autism, and depending on the degree of her autism there are so many other things her parents would have to watch for. plesase do not judge her parents. it is an enormously hard job to take care of people with special needs.
No one has the right to judge that mother, we have all turned our heads for a second and had our children do something they shouldn't.
I only have one child and I can tell you he will disapear in the blink of a damn eye in the second it takes me to get him a spoon for his yogurt, I can't imagine what it is like to have a child with autisim who doesn't understand or follow what we consider as a standard measures of fear or limitations. That man is a hero, and there needs to be more people out there being heroes. If I ever saw a child in any situation I could save them from I would do so with no second thought, and I can only hope that someone would do the same for my little boy.