Exclusive | Family hospitalized after Brooklyn building collapse moved in less than 2 week ago, mom says
A mother and son who were hospitalized with serious injuries after the deadly Brooklyn building collapse had moved in to the doomed apartment less than two weeks before the catastrophe.Leidy Álvarez, 31, told The Post from her bed at Kings Hospital Saturday, that she, her husband Anderson and her two little boys Pablo, 9, and Joseph, 3, were still settling into their second-floor home at 1321 Flatbush Ave.when the building’s facade caved in Wednesday around 4 p.m.“We had been there for a week and a half,” she said softly with medical cloth wrapped around her face as she lay down.
“We had managed to get [the apartment], and I said that we would buy the furniture either this week or next.Anderson had bought a rug so that Joseph could play comfortably.
We were very happy.”Álvarez, who is from Colombia, said Anderson wasn’t home during the collapse that killed eight people — including two kids — and injured 18 others.Shocking footage from Álvarez’s living room captured the moment she, Pablo and Joseph were slammed with falling debris.“I asked my son Pablo to grab the baby bottle and the milk so I could feed Joseph, and that’s when everything happened.I don’t remember anything else,” she recalled.Álvarez had been on a video call as the building crumbled.
“They saw everything collapse,” she said.“They said, ‘What happened? Hang up and call Anderson!’ Because they could hear Joseph and Pablo crying in the background.“Anderson told me that when I called him, the house had already collapsed.
I began screaming and begging for help for my children, but I don’t remember that.The only thing I recall is being in the ambulance before losing consciousness again with Pablo on my left, covered in blood, and Joseph on my right.”She said Joseph was fortunately unscathed when the building caved in, but Pablo suffered a severe head injury.
He remains in the intensive care unit, but is stable.“He is out of danger, but he is very swollen...