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“She’s alert, breathing on her own and aware of her surroundings -- getting better and better each day,” a law enforcement veteran told Daily Voice shortly after noon on Feb. 21.
“It really is a miracle,” he said. “There’s no other way to put it.”
Just six days earlier, the distressed youngster went to the roof of the brick building on Day Avenue as classmates headed home from Lincoln School just two doors down.
She dropped her jacket and cell phone to the sidewalk, then dangled herself over the ledge and let go.
A video shot from the street -- and posted online -- showed the girl’s feet hitting a fourth-floor window sill, knocking her head over heels.
She landed feet first after the flip, suffering massive fractures and severe trauma, and was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.
Loved ones prayed and hoped against what all admitted were impossible odds. Meanwhile, other children and many adults inexplicably shared the horrific video through social media.
SEE: Fairview Girl, 13, Clings To Life As Horrifying Video Of Apartment Building Plunge Spreads
Then came news of her recovery.
Doctors removed the child's breathing tube over the weekend, sources told Daily Voice on Tuesday.
"She's kept improving ever since," one said.
The girl isn't out of the woods yet, another said, but there's genuine cause for optimism thanks to the care she's received from the experts and staff at HUMC, as well as her own fortitude.
"She's a fighter," a source said. "Hopefully she'll see that and tackle whatever led to this head-on."
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The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Or text CONNECT to 741-741.You are not alone.
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PREVIOUS STORY (2/16/2023): A young girl from Fairview was clinging to life on Thursday as a video of her plunging from the roof of a multi-story apartment building horrifyingly continued spreading online.
It's only nine seconds long, but it's a terrifying image that you cannot unsee. Yet somehow people believe the video of what may prove to be the final waking moments of the anguished teen's life is acceptable to share.
"Seems every child in the school systems of Fairview and Cliffside has seen this video in school today -- including my child and who knows how many others?" one upset parent said.
A group of students who had just left nearby Lincoln School are seen passing the Day Avenue building below the 13-year-old youngster on Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 15.
She tosses down her jacket and cell phone, then climbs feet-first over the side and lets go of her grip.
It happened that fast.
A fourth-floor window sill upends the child, who hits the sidewalk feet first, suffering massive fractures and trauma.
Some kids run, others hurry from a situation that's all but impossible for many young minds to process.
The girl has remained at Hackensack University Medical Center in grave condition since then, responders said.
Major Crimes Unit investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Fairview Police Department gathered witnesses for questioning, including some of the classmates who were on the sidewalk at the time. They also collected video, including the clip that has been racing across the Internet.
Meanwhile, parents, their children and others continued trying to wrap their minds around what happened.
"The fact that my child saw it before I did leaves me confused and angry," the Fairview mom told Daily Voice on Thursday.
She talked at length with her daughter, however, and it clearly did both of them some good.
Her daughter "is saddened over it and doesn’t understand why anyone would do that unless they were severely depressed or abused," the mom said.
Investigators emphasized that preliminary evidence doesn't point to bullying. Other factors were at work, they said, without elaborating.
"My heart just breaks over this," the mom said. "I never want my child to feel that she can’t come to me about ANYTHING no matter what. That's why I’ve assured her that I’m here, always, no matter what happens."
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FIRST STORY (2/15/2023): A young girl plunged several stories from the roof of a Fairview apartment building late Wednesday afternoon and authorities were trying to determine why.
The 13-year-old girl was breathing but unconscious when she was rushed to Hackensack University Medical Center, responders said.
Video shows the girl letting go from the top of the five-story brick building and falling to the sidewalk onDay Avenue near Lincoln School.
The block was cordoned off as Major Crimes Unit investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Fairview Police Department gathered witnesses for questioning.
"People are [making] conclusions, but we don't know anything for sure at the moment," one veteran investigator said.
Interviews with witnesses and any area surveillance video they can collect will help tell the story.
The Bergen County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Identification was also collecting evidence for the investigation.
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