Holland toddler falls from second story window

HOLLAND - A 21-month-old child is in the hospital after falling out of a window Saturday night. Police say Riley Gillihan and her 3-year-old brother were playing in the second story window next to their bed at a home on East 40th and Lincoln.

Sgt. Jeff Velthouse says a man and woman from Grand Haven were driving near the home when they spotted the children and tried to help.

"They saw two small children sticking their heads out the window and they stopped. They knocked at the door didn't get a response immediately and at the same time were telling the children to get back in the house," said Holland police sergeant Jeff Velthouse.

But police say the mother had put the kids to bed and apparently did not hear anything.

When the couple couldn't reach her, they went to a neighbor's house who called the dad on his cell phone.

"He did call his wife to say hey check on the kids, something is going on-- they're hanging out the window. And by the time the mother got to the window the little girl had already fallen out," said Detective Sergeant Roger Vanliere.

"The window is right next to the mattress of that bunk bed so both kids were standing on that mattress near that open window, said Velthouse."

Police say the toddler suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. She is recovering at DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, and is expected to be okay.

Velthouse says if it weren't for the couples quick thinking the little girl could have been out there for a long time before anyone discovered her.


by: Angela Cunningham