Friends drag boy, 16, back upstairs instead of calling ambulance after balcony fall

A teenager who suffered critical injuries in a Gold Coast balcony fall was initially dragged back upstairs by his mates, with a neighbour having to step in to call an ambulance after 45 minutes.

The boy, 16, suffered internal injuries just after midnight on Thursday when he fell backwards after sitting on the rail of a two-storey balcony at a unit block in Orchid Avenue, Surfers Paradise.

But instead of calling an ambulance, the boy’s mates took him back upstairs after the nine-metre drop to monitor him.

Queensland Ambulance Service said it took a third party – someone in a neighbouring unit – to sound the alarm nearly an hour later.

Officer in charge of the Coolangatta Ambulance Station Justin Payne said paramedics arrived to find the boy in a hallway “in an altered level of consciousness”.

“The patient’s friends had thought the best option for them was to move that patient back upstairs to the apartment,” Mr Payne said.

“Unfortunately, from a paramedic’s point of view, the best course of action in that scenario would have been to leave the patient on scene and call us immediately.

“The potential was the moving of that patient might have caused further injuries.”

The boy was taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a critical condition.

An update on his condition has been requested.

Mr Payne said he had heard reports that several people at the scene had been consuming alcohol for most of the afternoon.

He said were it not for the neighbour, the boy’s outcome could have been more dire.

“At first (his friends) thought he was not severely unwell, they thought that he was conscious and talking to them

“There was a real chance that if the patient was left where he was for a significant period of time, his outcome could have been quite dire.”

Police confirmed to NCA NewsWire they attended the scene, but ruled there had been no foul play.