Family photo of Destiny Antonio, 8, who fell from her 7th floor apartment window and survived.
New York Daily News Reports
It was her destiny to survive.
An 8-year-old Bronx girl aptly named Destiny survived a seven-floor plunge from her bedroom window early Thursday.
Destiny Antonio landed on a 10-foot swath of grass in front of the Castle Hill Houses, narrowly missing a paved roadway when she fell around 1:30 a.m.
"When somebody after that stays alive, it's a gift from God," said neighbor Juanita Candelare, 64.
"I'm gonna' thank God all day that she's alive." Friends said the family was sleeping when Destiny somehow tumbled out of the window in the bedroom she shares with some of her 11 siblings.
The little girl is undergoing surgery at Jacobi Medical Center, said longtime family friend Paul Miller. She suffered a broken hip, shattered pelvis, broken leg and trauma to her intestines and liver.
"Doctors are saying the first six hours are the most important," Miller said.
Authorities are still trying to determine how the child got out of the window, which has a visible window guard.
Miller said the window also opens from the top and believes the child squeezed herself through that.
He said Destiny's mom had complained to building management recently about the gap and that it had been fixed. A NYCHA employee said the top of the window should only open four inches.
Scene at 2140 Seward Avenue, Destiny Antonio, fell.
"She might have lifted the window up and climbed over the window guards?" neighbor Cecilia Colon, 52, speculated.
"It's a mystery. I can't figure it out."
Luis Guzman was hanging out with friends when he heard the girl hit ground and said she was "moving around, like when you're having a nightmare."
"It sounded like you threw something very heavy," he said. "When we looked it was a little girl right there."
Guzman sat by the girl, dressed in her pajamas, and told her, "Mama, don't move."
The girl's mom ran outside immediately.
"Oh, my baby!" the mother cried.
Guzman said the woman almost fainted.
Relatives were keeping vigil Thursday at the hospital as Destiny underwent surgery. "A miraculous kid," Miller said of Destiny. "God had his hands on her," he added.
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