'Always monitor your children' advises mum of baby who fell to her death

KUALA LUMPUR: "We have to constantly monitor (children)...no mother wants this to happen," said the mother of an 11-month-old baby girl who died after falling from a room window on the third floor of her family's Sri Aman apartment in Jalan Aman Putra, here, recently.

Norasikin Juliar, 37, said she considered the tragedy a painful lesson not to be complacent around children.

"I don't mean that at that time I was being negligent...if possible I had wanted the child to be within sight all the time. We did not expect and anticipate this to happen," she said when met after receiving donations during the visit of Gerakan president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai, today.

The incident happened at about 2 pm on May 2. The results of the autopsy by the Forensic Unit of Selayang Hospital found that the baby's death was due to head injuries after falling from a height.

Norasikin said everything happened in a blink of an eye, adding that she was folding clothes in another room when the incident occurred.

"She (victim) was out of my sight for just while. She was playing by my side when her sister suddenly took her to the room in front as several of her cousins were there playing.

"But in less than a few minutes she fell down," she said.

According to Norasikin, her husband Khairul Faizal, 37, has not got over the trauma of losing the youngest of their seven children.

Meanwhile, Lau when met said he would propose to the government that all future People's Housing Programme (PPR) units must be built with the grills installed.

"The safety of the people must be given priority. We will soon have a meeting with the Federal Territories Minister or his deputy, other than KPKT (Ministry of Housing and Local Government) to discuss the matter," he said.

Apart from that, Lau said he would arrange for a psychologist to provide counselling to the family to help them cope and move on after the tragic event.

-- BERNAMA