A boy was rushed to hospital after lifeguards at a recreation centre noticed him floating in the swimming pool. Alberta Health Services confirms the boy died Tuesday.
The 7-year-old boy was swimming with a group of children in the indoor pool at O’Leary Leisure Centre at 8804 132nd Ave.
Lifeguards saw the boy was in distress and immediately removed him from the pool and began performing CPR, said City of Edmonton spokesman Mark Torjusen.
The boy was not breathing. Lifeguards called EMS and an ambulance took the boy to the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Wednesday afternoon, Alberta Health Services confirmed the boy had died.
“On behalf of the City of Edmonton our thoughts are with everyone who knew this young boy,” said Rob Smyth, Manager of Community and Recreation Facilities.
Several children, hair wet and still in their swimming trunks, left the closed leisure centre just before 3:30 p.m.
O’Leary Leisure Centre was open again on Wednesday. The city is involved in the investigation.
“The goal of the review obviously is to determine whether there are any steps we can take to improve safety of our facilities,” said Smyth.
The City is looking at bringing in a third party to assist in the investigation.
“We firmly believe that it is a very, very good standard, and we have to re-emphasize that the safety of these facilities is uppermost on our minds.”
“Any time there is an incident…we do update our operating procedures,” added Smyth.
There were two lifeguards on deck at the time of the drowning, which the City says was the appropriate number. The pool had 82 people in it at the time, and the policy is one lifeguard for 75 people. Children under eight have to come with a parent and wear a wristband to identify their age – and must be within arm’s reach of the parent. The capacity of the pool is 387 people.
“The other dimension to this is the compassion to the staff so certain for the support of the guards and staff who were involved because this really does impact us a lot,” said Smyth.
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