RICHMOND, Va. — A 30-year-old man has a long road to recovery after falling three stories off an apartment balcony in Richmond's Fan District.
Dylan Fairnet from Colonial Beach is recovering from his injuries at VCU Medical Center. His mother, Bronwyn Congdon, said the fall happened on the night of March 4.
Fairnet was shaking out a blanket on the balcony of his girlfriend’s West Grace Street apartment when he leaned over the railing. His family said the railing broke loose and he fell three stories to the hard pavement and parking lot below.
He broke the vertebrae in his back, his elbow, his ribs and suffered several facial fractures. In fact, his family said doctors were surprised he was able to make it to the emergency room.
“Nobody knows how he survived the fall. It’s three stories onto pavement. We are also glad nobody was parked there because he could hit a windshield,” Congdon described. “It’s right below. Where he fell as of yesterday, there’s a car parked.”
Before the fall, Fairnet’s family said he was very active and regularly played basketball in the city. He was a championship high school basketball player and played the sport at the University of Mary Washington.
Doctors operated on his back Monday and put pins and plates in his vertebral column. They helped him roll over on his own this week, but fear he may never run again.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have health insurance since he just started at a new job.
His family is raising funds to pay for his mounting medical bills.
CBS 6 has reached out to the property manager, The Collection Midtown, for a comment.
Taylor Garrett, a public relations senior account executive with the Brownstein Group, responded that the management wasn’t advised of the fall until March 8.
“We cannot yet confirm details of what occurred on March 4, but we are working diligently to investigate the matter,” Garrett stated in an email.
