A 2-year-old girl suffered a devastating brain injury and is on life support after a building’s dilapidated brick window ledge fell and struck her while she was in her grandmother’s arms on the Upper West Side Sunday.
Susan Frierson, 60, was holding granddaughter Greta Greene at around 11:05 a.m. on West End Avenue near 74th Street when a chunk of brick from the Esplanade Manhattan nursing home fell eight stories and hit the child, authorities said.
“I saw the grandma stagger. She was holding the baby in her arms,” said Nelson Amaya, 38, the doorman of a nearby building.
Good Samaritans, including a nurse from the senior center, rushed to the pair’s aid, telling the grandmother to lie on a nearby bench and administering CPR to the unconscious, bloodied toddler.
“I was walking down 76th when I heard the screams. The kid was gushing blood from her head,” said nearby resident Tsvi Kohl, 49.
“Me and three other ladies tried to give [the child] CPR and see if she had a pulse and was breathing. She was breathing but barely . . . There was no movement, no function, no cry. Just a beautiful baby girl,” said Kohl.
The two were rushed to Cornell Medical Center, where the child was clinging to life, sources said. The grandmother was being treated for serious injuries to her legs.
Surgeons operated on the baby, removing a section of her skull to relieve swelling and bleeding in the brain, sources said.
The senior center, which calls itself “a luxury senior residence,” was slapped with two city Department of Building complaints minutes after the incident.
Inspectors found that the owners failed “to maintain the property in a safe and code-compliant manner” and issued a violation, a DOB spokesman said.
The dangerous exterior has gotten them in trouble before. In 2010-2011, the owners paid the DOB $6,467 in fines for failing to show they had performed a facade inspection on time.
Disrepair to the front of building appeared obvious from the street — with at least two other exterior window sills missing bricks.
“It looks like it’s an old building. There’s obviously some disrepair,” said a DOB inspector who declined to give his name.
Esplanade’s executive director, Marcy Salwen-Levitt, did not immediately return requests for comment.
Frierson, the child’s maternal grandmother, had posted photos of her and the baby on Facebook with the captions “The best thing in my life!” and “I’m in love.”
She baby sits two or three times a week for the parents, Stacy and Jayson Greene of Brooklyn, neighbors said.
“The last time I saw [the baby] was in the laundry room. She was helping her mother take the clothes out of the dryer,” said Janet Bryan, who lives next to the parents.
“[Greta’s] very bright. She echoes their words. I hope the baby’s all right. I’m devastated for the parents,” she said.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton and Dana Sauchelli