Christina Simoes: Mother Paralyzed After Jumping From Burning Building To Save Toddler, Boy Unhurt

Christina Simoes was trapped insider her burning apartment building with her 18-month-old son Cameron and only one way to safety — out the second story window.

So Christina grabbed Cameron tightly and made her way to the window.

“I grabbed my son and I held him as tight as I could to my chest and I gave him a kiss and a hug, and I told him I loved him and I jumped out the window,” Simoes told CBS Boston from her hospital bed on Mother’s Day. “I didn’t think about it. All I was thinking about was getting him out of there. He mattered way more than I did.”

Christina Simoes said she first saw the fire when she and Cameron were lying in bed. The mom then noticed that the flames were just 10 feet away, and there was no way for her to get back downstairs to safety.

The desperate mom would need to jump from the window, and would need to hold her toddler to do it.

Simoes was able to keep Cameron safe in her arms as she tumbled several feet to the ground below, but suffered back injuries so severe that doctors said they aren’t sure if she’ll ever walk again.

“I broke my vertebrae in my back so now I don’t have feelings in my legs,” Simoes said. “I had to have a six-hour surgery.”

But even though she was still in pain in the hospital, Christina Simoes said her Mother’s Day was perfect.

“I’m having a good day,” she said from the hospital. “My whole family is here, my son is here. It’s magical, I mean there’s nothing that feels better than having everybody here with me.”

Doctors said Christina Simoes will need to be in the hospital for another 10 days before the heroic mom moves on to rehab. But she still doesn’t see the act as anything that special.

“I don’t think that I’m any special hero at all. I’m just Cameron’s mom,” Simoes said.

But people nationwide believe Christina Simoes is much more than that for jumping from a second story window and saving her toddler son — nothing less than a hero.