A five-year-old boy who fell 90 feet into the Niagara Gorge, when his mother plunged in the waters in Buffalo, New York, was rescued. He underwent surgery at Buffalo’s Oishei Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
Due to the boy’s young age and “an ongoing investigation” into the incident that caused his fall, State Park Police did not give the boy’s name or any other details about his mother. His mother was hurt and later died after she jumped over a railing into the space between Terrapin Point and the Cave of the Winds on Goat Island.
The boy’s father, who witnessed the incident, and other on-the-scene witnesses were questioned by park police.
The couple was from India and traveled to Niagara Falls with their young child.
Rescuers described the victims’ location as an overhang that protruded from the face of the gorge’s wall.
Rescuers sped to the victims and managed to retrieve the child while performing CPR on the mother. The medical evaluation determined that the youngster was stable enough to be transported.
The mother’s body was found in difficult terrain, so the New York State Police Aviation Division requested a helicopter. The mother was pronounced dead at the site.
The incident was not believed to have been an accident, according to State Parks Police Captain Chris Rola. It was ruled a suicide.
Niagara Falls and Park, the Golden Gate Bridge in California, and the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland were all mentioned as suicide “hotspots” in a 2009 report that was published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.
