A grieving mum has told how her "adventurous" one-year-old son fell to his death after climbing on top of his electric toy car and plunging from their balcony window.
Mihaela Baicans, 27, had been preparing lunch in May when Zayn toddled onto the fourth-floor balcony in Petrosani, Romania without her noticing - clambering on his toy car.
The student nurse said she heard a noise followed by a scream, before someone shouted that a child had fallen.
She ran down the stairs from her apartment before finding her little boy on the floor unconscious.
Zayn was rushed to hospital with a severe brain bleed and fell into a coma, before he was sadly pronounced dead on May 29.
The toddler had climbed on top of his car and fallen through the family's balcony window that "opened like a door", after each parent thought he was with the other.
Mihaela is now urging all parents to child-proof their homes, urging them to "spend every moment" with their little ones after she lost her only child.
The mum, who moved from Hednesford, Staffordshire, to Romania in 2020, said: "It was a typical Thursday.
"Zayn woke up from his nap and went into the living room with his dad while I was in the kitchen preparing lunch.
"I opened the door that goes straight to the balcony and I opened the window for fresh air.
"For a moment Zayn left and his dad thought he came into the kitchen. I didn't hear him because of the cooker hood. I didn't know he had left the living room or that he was on the balcony.
"I heard such a strong noise and instantly started to shake. I remember feeling shocked and a paralysed emotion crept from head to toe.
"My first instinct was to check to see where he was and then I heard someone screaming loud 'a child has fallen'."
Mihaela and Alex Baicans, 32, then rushed outside to find Zayn's tiny body on the ground - with one of their neighbours watching on in horror.
After a stranger called for an ambulance, he was rushed to hospital where doctors tried to stabilise him before agreeing to put him in an induced coma.
The toddler was then taken by helicopter to a nearby children's hospital where his parents waited three days to see if his condition improved.
Mihaela said: "I ran down the stairs screaming and I saw him on the ground.
"He climbed his electric car, reached the window sill, managed to open the mosquito net and fell from fourth floor.
"I screamed for 10 minutes straight until the ambulance came. I don't know who called the ambulance - it was probably the guy who said that he fell.
"At the hospital he started having seizures while doctors tried to stabilise him. They put him straight into a induced coma.
"A helicopter came from Timisoara [western Romania]. His condition got a lot worse and he was sent to the Emergency Hospital for Children Louis Ţurcanu.
"While waiting outside, I found out he was in stage four coma with minimal chances of survival.
"After a couple of hours they let me go inside to stay with him. No one else was allowed but me. My family tried everything to have just one moment with him but they didn't have the chance.
"At the hospital I stood there in disbelief. I was numb.
"Doctors told me they're doing everything they can and to wait at least 72 hours to see what happened."
When Mihaela was allowed in to see her son, she was devastated to find him his eyes "lifeless" and glazed over.
She said: "After 24 hours they finally let my husband see our child too. I already saw all the signs that he was not showing any improvements.
"His eyes started to open and they were lifeless.
"Zayn had a massive hematoma on his entire brain, he was alive for at least 48 hours because of the ventilators.
"On the Sunday night at approximately 1.30am I got a call from the doctor that Zayn's heart stopped beating."
Zayn, who was "adventurous" and had a "special personality", died three days after the accident.
His mum is now pleading with other parents to make sure their homes are safe for children until they "understand the danger around them".
Mihaela said: "My advice for the other parents is not to take it for granted. To stop stressing about cleaning and cooking and spend every single moment with their babies.
"And of course, my main message is to child proof their homes until their kids start to understand the danger around them.
"Zayn was born in on February 16, 2021. He was so special.
"He started walking at seven months. He was so adventurous and we gave him the freedom to explore, but our mistake was that we didn't take enough precautions.
"He loved music so much. He used to dance all the time especially to Ed Sheeran songs.
"[He had] such a special personality and he loved people - even strangers. He wasn't shy at all.
"Me and his dad have been together since 2013 and we got married same year we planned to have Zayn.
"He was so wanted, by us and our entire family."
