An 18-month old boy who plunged 12ft from a balcony at a block of flats has returned home – with barely a scratch to show for his ordeal.

Little Samuel Medley fell from the first floor of the flats in Hickman Road in Tipton on Tuesday.

At first his parents feared the worst and Samuel was taken to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where he was treated for head injuries and a suspected collapsed lung.

But doctors yesterday gave him the all clear and sent him home. Mother Kelly Harris, 21, said she and his father John were stunned he’d recovered so quickly. “I was devastated when it happened and he is such a lucky boy to be alive really,” she said.

Miss Harris, who also has a daughter Trinity, five, had opened the balcony door because of the heat. But she still has no idea how he managed to get over the railings.

She paid tribute to those who had cared for him. “The paramedics were just wonderful and so were the hospital staff,” she said.