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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Girl, 7, critical after falling from window

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Seven-year-old Amber Delf was playing with friends on Sunday and fell from a second story side window onto pavement at her home on Wikao Street. She was at Queen's yesterday in critical condition.

DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Amber Delf, 7, fell from this second-story window on Sunday, landing on pavement. State child welfare officials are investigating.

DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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A 7-year-old girl was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at The Queen's Medical Center yesterday when her condition worsened a day after she fell from her second story bedroom window.

The girl, identified by a family friend as Amber Delf, was reported to be in critical condition yesterday morning at The Queen's Medical Center.

Paramedics arrived at a home on Wikao Street in Mililani at 2:43 p.m. Sunday after receiving a call that a girl had fallen out of a window. Officials reported that she was playing on a bunk bed in a bedroom when she fell out of a second-story window onto pavement.

Amber was taken to Queen's in serious condition, but was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit yesterday morning after her condition worsened.

Dominica Bautista, a friend of the family who has been living with them for about a year, said she and Amber's teenage sister were home Sunday when Amber and two friends were playing upstairs on the bunk bed. One of the friends yelled to Amber's older sister that "Amber fell down the window," Bautista said.

"She's a very nice little girl," Bautista said. "Very active. ... She likes to play."

Bautista said Amber's father, who is in the military, was working in South Korea and is returning today. Amber's mother, whom Bautista said was at the hospital yesterday, could not be reached for comment.

"It's very hard for her," Bautista said of the mother.

FALL 'VERY UNUSUAL'

State Department of Human Services officials said yesterday they will investigate the case.

DHS spokesman Alan Eyerly said the department's Child Welfare Services branch decided to investigate the incident because "a fall like this is very unusual."

Sunday's incident follows other recent cases where children have fallen, although the previous cases were fatal and involved high-rise balconies.

  • Jan. 1, 2006: A 3-year-old boy from New York state fell to his death from an eighth-floor balcony of a hotel room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

  • Nov. 20, 2004: A 4-year-old boy died after falling eight floors from the lanai of his family's condominium on Kuilei Street in Mo'ili'ili.

  • Aug. 8, 2004: Exodus Berger, 2, died after climbing onto a metal storage rack and falling from a 14th-floor balcony at an apartment on University Avenue.

    Advertiser staff writer Peter Boylan contributed to this report.

    Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.