"Miracle on 34th Street"

[Steff]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/12/fall.survival.ap/index.html

 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) -- A 70-year-old woman survived a nine-story fall from a condominium tower Wednesday when she landed on a canopy, officials said.

 

Gloria Jummati was cleaning her balcony at Coral Ridge Towers when she fell and landed on a first-floor canopy, according to the Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue.

 

Jummati was alert and talking when rescuers arrived.

 

She was transported to Broward General Medical Center with a broken arm and other non-life-threatening injuries, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

 

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/sou...-home-headlines

 

Canopy saves life of Lauderdale woman who falls 9 stories

 

By Brian Haas

Staff Writer

Posted May 12 2005

 

 

Gloria Jummati plummeted about 100 feet from her ninth-floor balcony Wednesday morning at the Coral Ridge Towers in east Fort Lauderdale. But instead of hitting the ground, the 70-year-old woman landed on a small canopy and survived with a shoulder injury.

 

Her landing was perfect: exactly in the middle of the canopy, where two aluminum pipes meet. The pipes bent and cradled her body, stopping her just feet from the ground. The canvas didn't even rip.

 

"It definitely saved her life," said Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue Division Chief James Sheehan.

 

An inch or two off, and it would have been a different story.

 

Jummati declined interviews through a spokeswoman at Broward General Medical Center.

 

Sgt. Andy Pallen, spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, said Jummati, a snowbird, somehow fell while cleaning her condo balcony at 3333 NE 34th St. in preparation for a return trip north.

 

"She's very, very lucky," Pallen said. "She'd better go buy a lottery ticket."

[WilliamTell]

Very lucky indeed.