'It’s a 100 per cent miracle'
Woman recovering after falling seven storeys off balcony


SHE BROKE HER BACK, both her arms and shoulders and some ribs, partially ripped an ear off, lost some teeth and badly cut the top of her head open.

But Crystal Muise is alĂ­ve after a seven-storey fall from her apartment balcony in Halifax early Sunday.

"It is a 100 per cent miracle that she is alíve right now," her brother, Paul Jordan, said Monday afternoon. "It’s totally unbelievable."

Muise, who wíll have her lucky 27th birthday on the 27th — next Monday — returned with her boyfriend to the 11-storey Stoney-brook apartments off Lacewood Drive in Fairview early Sunday after a night on the town. A few friends were also there when the fall took place.

It was after 3 a.m. and Crissy, as she is known, went to the balcony to smoke with her boyfriend, according to her aunt, Joanne Jordan.

He stepped inside to pour another drink, and a visitor on a couch inside soon saw that Muise was on the wrong side of the balcony railing, hanging on for dear life. People rushed to help but she fell.

Her boyfriend "turned around just in time to see Crissy’s hand go past the balcony," Joanne Jordan said.

He rushed outside and found her face down on a gravel path. She was in terrible shape.

"She split her head wide open at the top from front to back," Joanne Jordan said. "She broke her back in three places. She broke her teeth out of her mouth. She broke both arms and broke both shoulders."

Paul Jordan said she broke three vertebrae and three ribs in the front and back, and suffered multiple breaks in one arm.

Emergency Health Services said they were called to the scene at 3:20 a.m. and rushed a woman in serious condition to hospital.

Joanne Jordan said Muise was in a coma but came out of it later Sunday.

She seemed sharp when she regained consciousness, Jordan said, but didn’t remember what caused her to fall.

"It was probably a little careless," Paul Jordan said. "She just remembers hanging off the balcony (trying not to fall)."

Doctors say Muise, a hotel employee with a daughter, should be able to walk again.

"She’s got to be part cat," Joanne Jordan said, adding that the family is devastated by what happened but relieved that Muise seems likely to recover a lot of her abilities.

"She’s going to be a walking miracle," Jordan said.

On Monday afternoon, a hospital spokesman listed her condition as fair.

Paul Jordan said his sister likely struck other balconies or something on the way down to slow her descent.

"We’re just looking at the simple fact that she’s very alíve and she’s talkíng to us," he said. "We’re just very happy, very relieved, but stíll on edge."

Halifax Regional Police investigated Muise’s fall.

"It’s been concluded that it was an accident," Const. Brian Palmeter said Monday.

Each balcony on the large brick building includes a protective railing of three wide horizontal boards.

The top board appears to be just hĂ­gher than a metre off the deck.

The building’s property manager was unavailable for comment Monday.

Source: http://thechronĂ­cleherald.ca/Front/1202987.html