‘Superhero’ delivery driver catches toddler falling from 12th-floor balcony in Vietnam

[Reading level: B2 – Upper Intermediate]

A “superhero” delivery driver in Hanoi has saved a two-year-old girl who fell from a 12th-floor balcony.

Nguyen Ngoc Manh, 31, was sitting in his car waiting to make a delivery at 5pm on Sunday when he heard a child crying, he told the Anninhthudo news organisation. A woman started screaming and he stuck his head out of the window to see what was going on.

He told local media in the Vietnam capital that he first thought it was a child having a tantrum, but quickly realised it was something else. The child was nearly 50 metres above ground.

“I saw a girl climbing out of the balcony,” he said. He jumped out of his car and climbed up on to a nearby building to get closer should the child fall.

“I mounted a two-metre-high tile roof to seek a proper position to get the girl,” he said, still trembling from the rescue, according to the Vietnam Times.

Standing on a metallic roof used to store generators, he lost his footing as the child began to fall, he told VN Express International. But he flung himself forward to catch her, landing so hard that he left a dent in the roof.

“I tried to reach out my hand and took the maximum effort to catch the girl,” he said, hoping that at the very least he might be able to prevent her from falling straight to the ground.

In a video of the incident taken from a nearby apartment building, the child can be seen climbing over the balcony railing and on to a thin ledge. Neighbours in a building opposite can be heard crying out to her. The child holds on for a few moments before losing her grip and falling.

“Luckily, the baby fell into my lap,” Nguyen said. “I hurriedly embraced her then saw blood leaking from her mouth, I was very frightened.”

The child was taken to the National Children’s Hospital where doctors told local media she had dislocated her hip but suffered no other injuries. Le Ngoc Duy, a doctor at the hospital, said she was in a cast and being monitored.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/02/superhero-delivery-driver-catches-toddler-falling-from-12th-floor-balcony-in-vietnam

WORD BANK:

tantrum /ˈtæn.trəm/ (n): (trẻ em) quấy

balcony /ˈbæl.kə.ni/ [B1] (n): ban công

mount /maʊnt/ (v): leo lên

tile roof (n): mái tôn

seek /siːk/ [B2] (v): tìm

proper /ˈprɑː.pɚ/ (adj): thích hợp

tremble /ˈtrem.bəl/ [B2] (v): run rẩy

footing /ˈfʊt̬.ɪŋ/ (n): đứng vững, trụ vững

fling /flɪŋ/ (v): nhoài người ra, phóng người ra

dent /dent/ (n): vết lõm

hold on (phrasal verb): bám lấy, giữ lấy

grip /ɡrɪp/ [B2] (n): bám giữ

embrace /ɪmˈbreɪs/ [C2] (v): ôm

dislocate /dɪˈsloʊ.keɪt/ (v): trật

in a cast (adv): được bó bột

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