Cat Survives 9-Story Fall In Brookline

BROOKLINE, MA – Maybe cats really do have nine lives. Simba, a kitty from Brookline from a nine story balcony on Halloween, landing on a concrete patio, shattering his jaw and two of his legs and suffering a host of other serious injuries, and survived.

Now the MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center in JP are calling Simba a miracle cat.

The furry feline who is just shy of 2 years old lives with the Jardus family on Beacon Street in Brookline. A family member visiting inadvertently left him outside on the balcony where, at some point, he fell all the way down to the patio below, according to Victoria Jardus via the news release.

Unable to move, Simba appeared to have landed on his side by the side of the building. But no one found him until the next day after he'd endured overnight temperatures that fell into the 20s. When she did find him, Jardus rushed the little guy to Angell, in Jamaica Plain, where doctors worked to stabilize him.

“Simba was in shock when he first arrived and it’s quite miraculous that he survived at all,” said Virginia Sinnott of Angell’s Emergency & Critical Care Unit in the release. “His temperature had dropped to 86—as opposed to 100, which is the normal body temperature for a cat. And he suffered multiple injuries that could easily have killed him.”

Not only did he have fractures of three legs Simba’s jaw was shattered by the fall. His lungs were nearly ruptured, he suffered multiple lacerations and had blood in his abdomen, according to the MSPCA. He spent eight days in the hospital.

But now, six weeks after the fall, Simba is doing much better.

“He is through the worst of it and for that we’re so grateful,” said Jardus, whose young daughter claims Simba as her own, the MSPCA reported. “We came so close to losing him and I’m overjoyed to see him improve a little each day.”

Simba is walking, breathing and eating well, but has a more visits to the MSPCA ahead of him as he continues to heal, according to the MSPCA.

Each year Angell sees about 10 to 15 cats who have fallen from significant heights, but who don't make it, according to a spokesperson. None of the vets remembered a time when a cat fell nine stories and survived, Rob Halpin of the MSPCA told Patch.

Part of what may have helped Simba is something researchers call the "high-rise syndrome." As any cat owner knows kitties have a knack for landing on their feet when they fall off of things like the TV or the counter when they're caught by surprise. But cats are actually less likely to land on their feet from heights much higher - until it's a height signficantly higher, such as a high-rise. The reason has to do with the velocity of the cat and the height. Wired Magazine lays out a description of it here with charts.

“Many pets die from falling from windows or patios that are not even half as high,” said Emily Ulfelder of Angell’s surgery team. “He is so lucky to have landed the way that he did, as the fall alone could easily have killed him. As for surviving a frigid night alone, outside and in such pain, it’s fair to say he used at least one or two of his nine lives.”

Photo courtesy MSPCA-Angell