A 23-MONTH-OLD toddler from Bare is close to death this week after falling 20ft out of a window. Samantha Rayner plunged from the first floor on to a concrete pavement on St Margaret's Road on Monday. She suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary with a police escort. An emergency paediatric team had been contacted in advance at the hospital and they were waiting for her as she arrived.

Samantha was then stabilised at the hospital before being transferred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool where she could receive specialist treatment.

Her distraught mother was reported as being close to tears as she said: "I don't know what happened. I just found my daughter lying there unconscious, not breathing... I just can't cope with all of this, it's so upsetting. I just don't know what to do. My husband's down there in Liverpool with her now." A spokesman for Lancashire Ambulance Service in Morecambe said: "She has very nasty head injuries and was in quite a bad way when we arrived at the scene.

"The best care possible was provided at the infirmary but the girl was later transferred to the Alder Hey Hospital." Yesterday it was reported that Samantha was still on a ventilator and her condition hadn't changed.

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said the Samantha's dad was keeping a 24-hour vigil at her hospital bedside.

Police and other agencies are planning to conduct a full an investigation to find out what happened.

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