In intensive care

Two-year-old girl now stable after roller blind accident

A cautious sigh of relief after a dramatic accident involving an automatic barn door in Waldkirchen am Wesen. A two-year-old child was so badly trapped that she stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated. Doctors at Linz University Hospital were able to stabilize the little girl's circulation. The cause of the accident was still unclear on Sunday evening.

While the mother and grandfather were carrying out stable work on Saturday evening, the accident happened just a few meters away: a two-year-old girl was reportedly trapped in the same building by a heavy, automatically controlled wall roller blind - a type of curtain that can be rolled up.

When the toddler was finally found at around 6.55 p.m., she was no longer breathing. "Fortunately, the girl had already been freed when we arrived," reported incident commander Bernhard Reitinger from the Aichberg-Waldkirchen fire department. "I didn't see the roller blind myself, but it was a kind of barn door."

In intensive care
The Christophorus 10 emergency helicopter team arrived a short time later and began resuscitation attempts. Fortunately, these were successful and the toddler began to breathe again. The injured girl was then immediately flown to the Linz University Hospital (Med Campus IV) in Linz. The hospital said on Sunday morning that the little girl was receiving intensive medical treatment, but that her condition was now stable.

Investigation
Four fire departments, rescue services, police and an emergency helicopter were deployed in the tragic incident. The family of the two-year-old girl was looked after by the crisis intervention team. How and why the dramatic accident occurred is now the subject of a police investigation.