Girl, 3, dies nearly a month after fall from 4th-storey flat

Child, who was alone at home when she fell, dies of pneumonia

The fourth-storey flat at Block 542, Serangoon North Avenue 4 where three-year-old Nur Syahamah Syahrom fell out from. PHOTO: SHIN MN

A three-year-old girl who fell from a fourth-storey flat after being left alone at home last month was buried yesterday afternoon in Choa Chu Kang Muslim Cemetery.

Nur Syahamah Syahrom died of pneumonia at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) on Saturday, The Straits Times has learnt.

She fell from her home in Block 542, Serangoon North Avenue 4, on Jan 20 at 12.40pm.

Her grandmother had left her alone at home to go to the shop, reported Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News.

The windows in the flat did not have grilles. A retiree who was passing by the block that afternoon saw her lying motionless on the ground and got passers-by to get help from a nearby clinic.

A doctor examined her and fitted her with an oxygen mask before she was taken, unconscious, to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she spent the night in the intensive care unit. Details of her condition after that, and when she was moved to KKH, are not known.

When The Straits Times visited the family's flat yesterday morning, relatives and friends were streaming into the home to visit and comfort the family. Her mother, a teacher, appeared distraught.

The family declined comment.

At least two young children died after falling from their flats last year. Two others had close shaves.

In October last year, a four-year-old boy fell to his death from a ninth-storey flat in Yishun Ring Road that did not have window grilles installed.

The boy was alone after his mother left the home in the morning.

In another case in the same month, an off-duty police officer rescued a boy, six, who was dangling from the window grilles of a flat on the 30th floor of a block in Lorong 1, Toa Payoh.

In April last year, a three-year-old boy fell six floors from a flat in Stirling Road, minutes after his grandmother went downstairs. He died about two months later.

Also in April last year, a two-year-old girl was left alone at home for about 15 minutes while her mother was taking her older sister to school.

The toddler got her head stuck between a laundry pole and the ledge of a second-storey flat in Jurong East while trying to retrieve an iPad she had dropped.

Two construction workers helped to free her. Later, Singapore Civil Defence Force officers helped the three of them get down to the foot of the block.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 15, 2016, with the headline Girl, 3, dies nearly a month after fall from 4th-storey flat. Subscribe