‘Miracle’ Minneapolis toddler who survived fall from balcony likely to make a recovery

Abdirizak Abdi, the 1-year-old who survived a 55-foot drop from a balcony almost a month ago, is likely to make a full recovery, a close family friend tells tells CBS Minnesota.

Abdirizak fell from the balcony of their family home on May 2 while he and his 2-year-old brother, Abdiqani, were playing and fell onto a rooftop landing next to the balcony and then to the ground, People reports.

Abdiqani died form his injuries while Abdirizak suffered three broken ribs, a fractured skull and a broken arm and jaw, ABC News reports.

Calling Abdirizak’s recovery a “miracle,” family friend Grad Darhir told CBS Minnesota the boy is back home playing with blocks and smiling.

“Starting from the mother, father and anyone of his family, friends, people are very glad to see Abdirizak is with me today,” Darhir said, speaking for the boy’s father, who sat next to him.

“And he is. with us, this interview, smiling, sharing,” Darhir continued. “It’s amazing. It’s a miracle. It’s a miracle.”

The friend and translator also told the station of the tragic accident, “We have accepted it. Everybody has accepted it and whatever we have, whatever the family has is just to thank Allah.”

The toddler’s “brain, his organs are perfectly fine,” Darhir said, but he still has not grasped that his big brother is gone.

“He’s just running around, trying to find his sibling, his brother,” Darhir explained. “He doesn’t know what to say and he doesn’t know what happened, but he knows something is wrong.”

The family now protects their balcony with a metal grate, and the landlord has promised to do the same to every balcony on the building, WCCO reported.

Darhir said the family believes their loss should be a warning to other families to take caution with small children.

“It could happen to anyone and we don’t want to lose anyone,” Darhir said for the family, which has set up a GoFundMe account to pay for medical expenses related to the tragedy.
“We have to be very much careful as much as possible,” the family friend said.

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