Winfield police investigating 'suspicious' fall from hospital parking deck

A woman and her child suffered major injuries Tuesday after falling six floors from the parking garage at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, Winfield police said.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances of what they're calling a "suspicious incident" after first responders found the 5-year-old girl and her 28-year-old mother at the base of the parking deck, according to a news release and Police Chief David Schar.

Police and fire crews responded about 4:38 p.m. to the hospital campus at 25 N. Winfield Road for reports of two people who had fallen from the sixth floor of the detached garage, officials said.

The unidentified woman and her daughter were brought to the emergency room at Central DuPage Hospital, police said. The woman was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center, and the girl was taken to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

Neither is believed to have been a patient at Central DuPage, Schar said. Police are reviewing surveillance footage and working with hospital security staff to determine how the fall occurred, he said, noting the side walls of the parking deck are "extremely significant."

"That's what makes it suspicious," Schar said. "It would be difficult for somebody to accidentally fall off."

In a statement, Northwestern Medicine representatives acknowledged the incident and ongoing police investigation, but said they could not comment further "due to patient privacy."