A young boy is in critical, life threatening condition after being found floating in a pond in Saddle Ridge late Friday afternoon.
Shortly before 5:00 p.m., emergency crews responded to an area near the intersection of 60 Street and 88 Avenue Northeast following reports of a missing child.
The young boy was found in a retention pond by a passerby, pulled to shore and transported by ambulance to the Peter Lougheed Centre in critical, life threatening condition.
The passerby tells CTV Calgary that he lives in the community and was riding his bike in the area when he noticed a large group of people looking for someone and he joined the effort. The man says he soon spotted the boy, who he believes to be roughly five years old, floating in the water.
“It was just something that caught his attention and, for better or worse, he recognized that there may have been an object or something in the retention pond," said EMS Public Education Officer Stuart Brideaux. "He did enter and determined it was a young male patient and quickly brought him to the bank where awaiting fire crews and EMS could assume care.”
“We would like to thank the bystander who was able to retrieve him from the retention pond. The quick actions that he was able to enact our something that made a large difference in this case.”
According to Brideaux, the young boy's condition had stabilized in the hours following the rescue but he was still considered critical. “We are sending our thoughts to the family at this time.”
The Calgary Police Service is investigating how the boy entered the retention pond.
