Oscar Blaxland still remembers the first question he asked his mother having woken up from a coma after plummeting six floors out of a window.
The then-three-year-old had been playing inside a unit in Sydney‘s Neutral Bay while his father, a real estate photographer, snapped some photos for a listing.
‘I had taken my sister’s slipper and thrown it out the window,’ the 31-year-old software sales executive told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Then I got up on the windowsill to see where it landed. I lost my balance and fell head first but landed on my knees.’
Oscar’s first childhood memory is waking up in hospital and telling his panicked mother Charlotte: ‘I want to watch Sesame Street’.
While her son lay in a coma Charlotte had promised him that he could watch his favourite character Ernie on the popular kids show when he woke up.
The detail is all the more heartbreaking when Oscar reveals that doctors had told his devastated parents it was unlikely he would survive the night.
The cheeky toddler had been playing with his sister in a unit in this apartment block in Sydney’s Neutral Bay while his father snapped photos for a real estate listing in 1996
Three-year-old Oscar is seen giving a thumbs up as his father pushes his wheelchair
Both of his femur bones had been broken in three places, the growth plates in his knees had been shattered and blood had pooled in his lungs.
Miraculously, Oscar made a full recovery with Mrs Blaxland recounting the harrowing details of his fall for the first time in her new book Miracle Boy.
While Oscar doesn’t remember the fall or the recovery afterwards, he does remember visiting his preschool and showing the other children his cast.
He said it had been emotional, and sometimes overwhelming, to read how his family members were affected by the accident – most of all his father.
‘It was just one of those really inexplicable things,’ Oscar said.
‘If you look at the body shape of a toddler, the head is quite large and even as an adult it’s still the heaviest part of your body.
‘They don’t really know how I didn’t hit the ground head first.’
Oscar, with his legs in red casts, is pictured with his younger sister Priscilla
Oscar said he had been an adventurous child and an ‘intense’ teenager, joking he was ‘definitely’ responsible for his parent’s grey hair.
Oscar said his father until very recently had struggled with guilt.
‘My poor father has sort of blamed himself his whole life,’ he said.
‘Of course he shouldn’t blame himself, it wasn’t his fault. Nevertheless, you come out of these traumatic incidences and people inevitably end up blaming themselves.
‘He feels like he should have been my protector, he should have prevented this accident and I suppose that’s your role as father, to protect your family.
‘So that’s been very difficult for him.’
Oscar believes the overnight fame that came with being dubbed the ‘Miracle Boy’ by the media had changed his family dynamic forever.
Both of Oscar’s femur bones were broken in three places following the six-storey fall
He now wonders if his sister Priscilla, who is 18 months younger than him, sometimes felt ignored in the whirlwind that followed his accident.
‘I mean, there’s me in front of the cameras and getting photographed, videoed and interviewed by reporters wanting to get my story,’ he said.
‘And Priscilla’s just there in the background. She’s fine today but that’s a tough thing for a child to have to go through, to feel like maybe your not important.
‘My sister is very important and very special. She’s a wonderful, beautiful person. But as a child, you don’t understand the nuances of the context of the situation.’
Oscar recently got married to his partner Kate and is excited to start his own brood.
He doesn’t think the accident will impact on his parenting and believes children should be challenged in the appropriate environment.
Oscar returned to the unit block for the first time ever this year (pictured)
Oscar recently married Kate, with the couple hoping to start their own family soon
‘I think that’s a good thing and so I’d like to think that I would stay true to that. But who knows? I suppose I’m only just coming to terms with the full gravity of the accident now as a 31-year-old,’ he said.
‘I don’t really know how it’s going to play out. But I do believe a bit of adventure is a good thing for children.’
Until then, Oscar intends to make the most of his knees until he inevitably has to have them replaced due to a lack of cartilage following the fall.
‘I believe I am very blessed,’ he said.
‘I don’t really have any other way of explaining it. I feel normal. I’m just a regular guy. I’ve got pretty s***** knees, but aside from that I’m just a normal guy.’