Mother Broke her Back Jumping from burning Building with her 18-Month-old Son in Her Arms

A mother may never walk again after she broke her back jumping from a burning building to save her toddler son. 

Christina Simoes, 23, held 18-month-old Camron in her arms and leaped from a second-floor balcony as flames swept through her apartment complex in Haverhill, Massachusetts.  But she denies being a hero, saying simply: ‘I’m just Camron’s mom’. 

Ms Simoes appeared on camera from her hospital bed for the first time yesterday, saying holding her son was the best Mother’s Day gift she could have.

She was in her apartment with Camron last Wednesday when a blaze began in the three-storey building, spreading quickly until smoke was pouring out of every window.

Without a thought for her own safety, she clutched her son tightly to her chest, told him she loved him and jumped from the balcony.

She broke several vertebrae in her back as she landed on the ground.

Surrounded by falling debris, she shouted at her son to run to safety as she dragged herself along the ground away from the fire.

Ms Simoes’ boyfriend Tyler Strangman has remained by her hospital bed since then, and she has undergone six hours of surgery in a desperate bid to stop her being paralysed for life.

Doctors do not currently know whether she will recover, though her family claim they have seen her toes wiggle.

The couple lost all their possessions in the fire, but Ms Simoes said she had the one thing that mattered most – her son.

Speaking on camera for the first time from her hospital bed, she told WCVB: ‘I just knew that we were either going to die or get out of there. Once I got to that window and I looked at what I had to do, I just did it.

‘There’s no way that my life would be more valuable than his – he’s my number one.

‘All of this, all the pain, everything that I’m going to have to go through is worth it to see him being able to run around and play.’

To CBS Boston, she added: ‘I grabbed my son and I held him as tight as I could to my chest and I gave him a kiss and a hug, told him I loved him and jumped out the window. 

‘I didn’t think about it. All I was thinking about was getting him out of there. He mattered way more than I did.  ‘I don’t think that I’m any special hero at all. I’m just Camron’s mom.’ 

Well-wishers have set up a GoFundMe page to help Ms Simoes with her medical bills which has already raised more than $13,000.  The City of Haverhill has also established a fund for all residents displaced by the fire.  The cause of the blaze is still being investigated.

Source: Daily Mail