A Portland mother has brought a $3 million lawsuit against her apartment complex after her 7-year-old daughter fell backwards through a window screen and dropped three floors, resulting in a cracked skull and a traumatic brain injury. According to OregonLive, the lawyer representing Lorrain Pomykala says that the property managers and owners of the Rivergreen Apartments in Gladstone, Oregon, should have fitted a $5 device that would have prevented the girl’s bedroom window from opening more than a few inches. Pomykala filed the suit last week in the Multnomah County Circuit Court.
The fall took place on the hottest day of the year up to that time (aroudn 90 degrees). As stated in the lawsuit, Maci Pomykala was sitting on the sill of her open bedroom window when she fell backwards through an insect screen and dropped three stories onto some hard, dry dirt. The screen failed behind her.
Her injuries were serious. Besides having a broken forehead, Maci also broke her nose and the bones near one of her eyes and had her arm broken in several places. Her traumatic brain injury involved bleeding around the brain and trapped gas in the head. The lawsuit claims that she has headaches and is liable to suffer future seizures as well as have ongoing or permanent disability.
The girl has now recovered sufficiently to go back to school; Maci, who is now eight years old, intends to start third grade this fall at her local elementary school. The defendants, with Rivergreen Associates Limited Partnership and CSM Corporation among them, haven’t yet replied to any requests for comment, and the claims in the lawsuit haven’t yet reached the courts.
What the Lawsuit Argues
The main point of the case is that a simple device could have prevented the accident. The attorney from Portland, Greg Kafoury, who brought the lawsuit, claims that a window stop should have been provided for the apartment. The device limits how far windows can be opened. Kafoury states that the necessary repair would have cost around $5.
Kafoury also refers to building codes as the basis of his argument. He states that, if the house had been constructed according to current building standards at the time, the Oregon building codes would have required the installation of window safety devices in Maci’s bedroom window. Further, he maintains that a large and sophisticated company should fit such devices into its units before new tenants move in.
Why Child Window Falls Are a Recurring Danger
There’s a pattern involving children falling from windows that child safety authorities caution about each year and which is linked to the weather. OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, the hospital that looked after Maci, states that around 50 children in Oregon have each year fallen from windows, the incidents starting when warm weather comes in the spring and lasting through the summer and into the fall when families open their windows to cool their homes.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that in 2024 about 5,600 children under the age of 12 were treated in emergency rooms across the country for falls from windows and that at least 25 children died as a result of such falls between 2021 and 2023.
One important thing to remember when it comes to child safety and windows is that insect screens aren’t safety devices. They’re intended only to keep bugs out, not to support the weight of a child. This was precisely how Maci fell. Both OHSU and the federal commission suggest fitting window stops, which restrict the amount a window can open to just a few inches and cost only a few dollars, or installing window guards, which consist of bars spanning the opening and can be released in an emergency such as a fire. Safety organizations also recommend keeping furniture that a child might climb away from windows, as reaching the sill can often be the first step in a fall.