EAST VILLAGE — A newborn baby and a nursing mother were injured in a freak accident Thursday morning caused by a melting block of ice that fell from a neighboring building's downspout and crashed through a basement window.
"We got lucky, no serious injuries," said Semyon Shtulberg, a consultant who was in Nebraska for business but rushed home on the next flight as soon as he learned his wife and 5-week-old daughter had suffered cuts in the accident.
Around 7 a.m. Thursday, ice melted off of a downspout from a neighboring condominium building to the Shtulberg's home in the 900 block of North Wolcott Avenue in East Village.
The ice crashed through the basement window, where Shtulberg's wife was "literally sitting in bed, breastfeeding" in their baby's nursery room.
Shtulberg, who declined to share his wife or daughter's name, said the glass from the shattered window caused surface cuts on his daughter's face, near her nose and under her eye.
"Amazingly, it could have hit her eye," Shtulberg said of the glass shards.
Shtulberg's wife suffered cuts on her back, as well as the backs of her hands, which were caused from shielding their daughter.
The baby, a 12-pound girl, was not seriously injured, nor was Shtulberg's wife.
After a neighbor called 911, both infant and mother were treated at St. Mary's Hospital and no stitches were required, Shtulberg said.
Prior to the accident, Shtulberg said he had noticed the ice on the neighboring building next door but "didn't see it as a threat."
