Musa Dayib: Minnesota baby survives 11-story balcony fall

A Minnesota baby has survived an 11-story fall from an apartment balcony, local media report.

One-year-old Musa Dayib has two arm fractures and is breathing with the help of a ventilator but is expected to live, after slipping through a railing.

His doctor said his youth as well as the soft patch of mulch he landed on helped contribute to his survival.

Family and friends in Minneapolis’s Somali community say the family is in shock.

“When people found out he survived, no one could believe it,” community activist Abdirizak Bihi told the Star-Tribune newspaper.

“I’m more concerned about his dad and his mother,” Abdirizak Bihi said.

“They’re devastated. They can’t even speak.”

Dr. Tina Slusher, who treated baby Musa, said an adult who fell from that distance would almost certainly be dead.

“Little [children] are more flexible and don’t break as easily as we do and he also fell in a very small patch of mulch,” she told local broadcaster KARE.

Dr. Tina Slusher added it was “definitely a miracle. It’s God’s gift to his family. Kids don’t fall this far and make it often”.