A British man has survived a fall from the 15th floor of a building in New Zealand, local media report.
Mr Stilwell fell from his building block, Volt Apartments in Auckland
Tom Stilwell fell from
his neighbour's balcony in his apartment block in Auckland at 02:00 local time
on Sunday (14:00 GMT on Saturday), reports said.
He was trying to lower
himself onto his balcony, which was directly below his neighbour's, when he
fell, police said.
His friends said that
he had bone fractures and internal injuries, but was "fine" and
"a very lucky man".
He was awake and
laughing on Monday, but had no recollection of what happened, his friends told
New Zealand newsgroup Fairfax Media.
"He looks
alright," his flatmate, Beth Goodwin, said. "It's more internal
injuries. He's broken some bones in his ribs and neck but they're not important
bones."
In a statement, New
Zealand police said: "It appears that the man was locked out of his 14th
floor apartment. He fell while attempting to climb down the outside of the
building from a 15th floor apartment directly above his, in an effort to gain
access via his balcony."
There were "no
suspicious circumstances surrounding the fall", the statement added.
'Tipsy
but polite'
Mr Stilwell discovered
he was locked out of his flat early on Sunday, and asked a neighbour if he
could climb down from her balcony into his flat, his friends said.
The neighbour,
Geraldine Bautista, told the New Zealand Herald that Mr Stilwell was "a
little tipsy" but polite.
"I wasn't scared
of him - he just requested 'Can you please let me jump off from the balcony? I
will not bother you, just let me use your balcony.'"
"I never thought
he would really do that. In my mind I thought 'Okay, I'll just let you see that
it's really impossible. I didn't think he'd jump, because it's really
scary."
However, he quickly
pulled himself over the balcony railing before she could stop him, she said.
"I thought I was
dreaming... it happened within seconds," she said. "I couldn't even
scream for help."
Mr Stilwell's fall was
broken by the roof of an adjacent building, reportedly some 13 floors below.
He was taken to
hospital in a critical condition, but was in a satisfactory condition by
Monday, a hospital spokesperson said.
Dr Tony Smith, a
medical director at St John, an emergency healthcare organisation, told the New
Zealand Herald that a person's chances of survival were increased if they were
able to break their fall on something.
However,
"survival from falls of that height are extraordinarily unusual", he
said.
In December 2007, New
York window cleaner Alcides Moreno plummeted 47 floors when cables holding the
platform he and his brother were working on failed. His brother died but Mr
Moreno made a full recovery, something doctors attributed in part to his escaping
major head injuries.
In June 2010 a
four-year-old boy escaped with minor injuries after falling from the 17th floor
of a hotel in Miami. Joey Williams, who bounced off palm trees as he fell to
the 10th-floor pool area, was sitting up in bed by the next day.
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