Bushes save tot in 3-storey fall

Leah had abrasions and bruising on her abdomen and head . File photo / NZ Herald

Little Leah Ranapia survived a three-storey plunge with only cuts and bruises, thanks to the garden bushes that broke her fall.

The 4-year-old with Kiwi parents was playing with her three younger sisters in their Sydney apartment when she fell through a flyscreen to a garden more than 6m below.

The bushes beneath the window cushioned her head from the blow and saved her from serious injury.

"It's a miracle she is okay," father Nam Ranapia told the Daily Telegraph.

He and Leah's mother, Kristen Ranapia, hail from Tauranga and moved to Sydney, where they had their four daughters.

Leah's parents and siblings did not realise she had fallen out the window and only found out from a neighbour who raised the alarm when she found Leah in the hedge just after 9pm on Tuesday.

"We did not know she fell ... The four girls were in here together and she just went," Mr Ranapia said.

Leah was rushed to Sydney Children's Hospital and spent the night in the emergency department.

The hospital's head of trauma, Kellie Wilson, said Leah had abrasions and bruising on her abdomen and head but had miraculously escaped relatively unscathed.

"Her parents were obviously very shaken and upset when they came in. It was very, very upsetting for them. Her mother's been sitting by her bedside since it happened."

She said police were satisfied the parents were not to blame for the accident and would not press charges.

"Leah was playing in the room ... and the last time the parents had looked at the window it was closed. So it looks like Leah or one of the other children opened it."

Mrs Wilson told the Herald Leah was recovering well but staff were still monitoring her closely and did not know when she would be released.

She said the family wanted to prevent further accidents like Leah's and were warning parents to limit how far windows could open in high-rise flats.

"Sadly this is ... all too common ... in residential high-density living."

Mrs Wilson recommended parents leave their windows open no more than 10cm or install window locks.

She said the hospital saw more than 20 cases a year of children falling from apartment windows and more often than not they were seriously hurt.