Man survives 50ft plunge from Brighton flat (From The Argus)

Man survives 50ft plunge from Brighton flat

2:00pm Monday 11th March 2013 in News By Ben James

A seriously injured man remained in hospital last night following a 50ft fall from a block of flats.

The 55-year-old, named locally as Michael, suffered multiple fractures after plunging from the Brighton flats yesterday morning (March 10).

He was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital with a shattered pelvis, broken elbow and various other fractures.

Neighbours reported seeing a shadow fall from a sloped roof before hearing an “almighty thud”.

Emergency services were called to the property to the rear of Vernon Terrace, Brighton, around 10.15am.

Paramedics found him unconscious on a ground floor extension and called the fire service to help get him down.

A spokesman from the fire service explained the man had fallen 50ft from the window and landed 9ft from the ground on a ledge.

Crew manager Sean Beals, at Preston Circus Fire Station, said: “The paramedics needed help getting the casualty off of the rear roof, which we accessed from Windlesham Gardens, and was about nine foot high.

“The male was in his 50s and pretty much unconscious.

“It took roughly 40 minutes for the ambulance crew to stabilise the man.

“Then using a large amount of fire fighter personnel we lowered him safely to the ground where he was whipped off to hospital in the ambulance.”

Walls shook

Neighbour Maudie na Nakhorn was the first on the scene.

She said: “He was rolling around in agony so I went up to the extension and held up my hands to stop him falling.

“My neighbour came out with some blankets and covered him until the ambulance came.

“It was horrendous. The flat below said that they could feel the walls shake while another neighbour said she couldn’t get the thud out of her head.”

The neighbour went on to say that the man was known to lock himself out his flat and on occasions had climbed the building to get in through a window.

'Everyone distressed'

She said: “I could see him rolling around in pain from my room, it was terrible.

“It’s amazing that he’s not too serious, it’s a long way to fall. Everyone is really distressed. We don’t really know what happened.

“I just hope he is OK, it all looked pretty serious.”

A police spokesman confirmed that the 55-year-old was last night in a “serious but not life-threatening condition”.

He added that the man had suffered a shattered pelvis along with a broken left elbow and several other fractures.

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