A woman in San Diego, California, lost her balance in the shower of her apartment on the second floor and fell through an open 2 by 3 foot window next to the tub, the local news media reported. The woman, identified only as in her 50s, fell to the bottom of a shaft for light about six to eight feet below ground level.
"It was an abnormal freak accident," said San Diego Fire Department and Rescue Battalion Chief David Connor.
The bathrooms in the apartment complex have a window into a shaft, said a tenant, John Taylor. He noted that the shaft for light, designed to bring light and air indoors, “This is a common feature of older apartment buildings,” he said.
Taylor said the building's owner, called him to alert him when the woman had fallen.
"The fire department was looking to see how they could get in there," Taylor said. "They came to my window and saw her there. They got to her through it."
Firefighters pulled the woman through the window of Taylor, and was taken to hospital with unspecified injuries.
While this may be an extreme example, bathroom injuries are more common than you think. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were an estimated 234,094 injuries in U.S. bathrooms. Two thirds of the cases occurred in the bath or shower, and 81 percent in general relate to accidental falls.
