Monday, November 19, 2007 Man jumps, saved by Christmas tree By Stephen Capillas
CHRISTMAS may not solve your problems but it may save your life. This particular truism was learned the hard way by one person who jumped from the fourth floor of the Gaisano Mall in Claro M. Recto Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City at past 9:00 a.m. last Saturday.
According to a radio report, the victim known only as James unexpectedly jumped from the mall's fourth floor before stunned mallgoers but was spared his date with Death thanks to a venerable Yuletide symbol.
Instead of a tiled concrete floor, the victim found himself crashing down the plastic leaves of a Christmas tree set up by the mall management to mark the season.
Mall security then helped up the victim who was brought to a nearby hospital for treatment. According to James's mother, the victim was suffering from severe depression, the nature of which the latter declined to disclose.
This was the fourth time that a person jumped from the fourth floor of Gaisano mall but the first time that the act didn't result in death.
At least two men jumped to their death from the Gaisano floor while a woman shopper got paralyzed from the neck down after a man crashed into her headfirst following his jump from the mall's fourth floor.
Gaisano mall management reportedly paid for the medical expenses of the woman shopper, a resident of one of the city's subdivisions.
