Toddler, grandmother severely injured by falling bricks in Manhattan

A toddler is on life support after a brick window ledge fell and hit her as she walked with her grandmother Sunday morning.

The pair were on Manhattan's Upper West Side when the bricks came tumbling down eight stories, striking the girl as her grandmother, 60-year-old Susan Frierson, carried her in her arms. The bricks came from the Esplanade Manhattan nursing home building, authorities said, and several bystanders, including a nurse, came to help, giving the young girl CPR. They were rushed to the hospital, where the toddler had surgery for swelling and bleeding in the brain and Frierson was treated for serious injuries to her leg, sources told The New York Post.

A few minutes after the incident, inspectors from the Department of Buildings came to the scene and issued a violation to the owners of the building, saying they failed "to maintain the property in a safe and code-compliant manner," the department said in a statement. In 2010, the owners paid more than $6,000 in fines for failing to show they performed a facade inspection.

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