A 2-year-old boy is in critical condition Monday after falling 30 feet down a hotel elevator shaft in south suburban Joliet.
About 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the boy left the Plaza Hotel room he was staying in with his family and entered an elevator. The Joliet Herald-News reports:
The boy started playing with the elevator's buttons and the elevator began to move, the lieutenant said. The boy then hit another button which made the elevator stop, but when it stopped there was a gap of about 10-inches between the elevator and the wall, Allbert said. The boy then fell through this gap, about 30 feet, to the hotel's basement.
The <em>Chicago Tribune reports that the boy suffered serious head injuries in the fall, and was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet before being airlifted to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
A Joliet Police lieutenant told the Herald-News that the child was critically injured, and that his head injuries were life-threatening.