3 year old toddler recovering from fall

Friday, February 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A story of survival after a toddler falls from a second story window. News on Six reporter Emory Bryan says the little girl is recovering - after tumbling out a window, rolling down a roof, and falling on the sidewalk.

It was an amazingly close call for this little girl named Grace. A fall bruised her face and sliced open her forehead, but 3-year-old Grace McKenna thinks it was just a bump on the noggin. Monday she was looking out an open window of her home. Grace McKenna, â€œI think I see a birdie in your house.â€ As she leaned into the screen - it popped off and she fell out. Her mother, Sarah McKenna, â€œAnd her scream let me know, I've never heard her scream like that. She was laying face down, crumpled into a little ball.â€ Grace fell right on her head on the concrete.

The blow cracked her skull - but she never lost consciousness. Her father, Jim McKenna, "And they had a bandage on her wound and they took it off and I thought Oh my goodness, it was very nasty looking gash, you couldn't even imagine you could have a gash that wide and deep, especially on a three year old."

Grace was rushed to the hospital and examined by Doctor David Fell, "She suffered a split on the forehead right forehead and a depressed skull fracture that was depressed enough it needed surgery to be elevated but it did not bruise her brain and she didn't have bleeding and neurologically she was not harmed."

Grace spent just two days in the hospital - a quick recovery her parents say was not by chance. Jim McKenna, "And I just totally attribute that to the prayers and the mercy and grace of God.â€ Graceâ€™s stitches come out Monday - and the bruises will fade. Her mother is naturally watching her every move now.

She's quite a survivor - she was born two months early - and given little chance of survival, but she did. Now this fall that could have been much worse - and she's as bright and happy as any three year old.