Newberg Graphic Online

Boy who fell from grandstand goes home

GFU — Doctors don’t anticipate any long-term consequences after 4-year-old boy falls more than 25 feet to the floor during a women’s basketball game Friday

• By: Frank Graham  
• Published: 11/20/2009 11:24:50 PM
• Last Updated: 11/24/2009 2:07:12 PM

   Gabriel, the 4-year-old boy who suffered a skull fracture after falling off the top level of a grandstand at George Fox University Friday night, was released from the hospital Monday.
   The boy fell from the top row of the stands at Miller Gymnasium during a Bruin basketball game. Eyewitnesses said the boy was running and tried to stop, but slid along the wooden stands, slipped underneath a handrail and plummeted more than 25 feet to the parquet floor below. It was unclear if he struck a partition erected in the corner of the gym while falling to the floor.
   Onlookers were first alerted that something was amiss when the boy’s father ran down the stairs and into the corner of the gym, where the boy laid motionless.
   Paramedics were dispatched and they took the boy, along with his parents, to Oregon Health and Sciences University Hospital by ambulance, according to GFU officials.
   Brad Lau, vice president for student life, asked for a moment of silence and said a prayer on behalf of the boy over the loudspeaker at halftime of the Bruins’ women’s game. Lau then left for the hospital.
   Lau said the youth was kept in intensive care at OHSU overnight but was moved into a room the next day. A protective neck brace was removed Saturday. He added that the boy was talking and behaving as normally as could be expected after suffering such a traumatic injury.
   Lau said the hospital kept Gabriel Saturday and Sunday for observation but released him Monday afternoon. He said the boy was playing and doing well.
   “The doctors don’t expect any long-term consequences,” Lau said. “It’s a real blessing and something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.”
   Lau declined to release the names of Gabriel’s parents or the boy’s last name.

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