A child is in hospital in life-threatening condition after a reported drowning at Mahogany Beach on Sunday evening.
According to EMS-Alberta paramedics reports came in about a “youth that had gone missing in the water” at the Mahogany Beach main area around 7:20 p.m.
Battalion Chief Scott Cowan with Calgary Fire Department says they responded to the call as well.
“Our crews arrived, talked to witnesses and found the last scene point of where the person had gone under the water. Our aquatics team entered the water, dove down. It’s quite deep,” says Cowan.
Cowan says Mahogany Lake is about 23 feet deep and that “visibility is very limited there.”
“They used equipment to get down to the bottom of the lake, found the child, brought them up and transferred care to EMS,” says Cowan who says the child was at the bottom of the lake.
Alex Kwan with Calgary Fire says the child was underwater for 43 minutes from the time 911 was dialed until they were pulled out.
“Definitely a challenge on our responders when we don’t always know the outcome of these, but you know, doing what we did to give every best chance of surviving, that’s what our crews did,” says Kwan.
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EMS-Alberta paramedics tells Global News that “once the CFD water rescue team found the patient,” they transported the child to the South Health Campus in critical life-threatening condition.
Signs outside the beach say that there are no lifeguards on duty at Mahogany Beach and to use it at your own risk.
“Any site or any place that’s unsupervised, we know there’s going to be a hightened risk,” says Jonathan Kusyanto, executive director of the Lifesaving Society Alberta and Northwest Territories Branch.
“At the end of the day, reinforcing messages, signage barriers, all of those things are in place to help educate, help reduce risk for the user.”
Based on a 20-year analysis, the lifesaving society’s stats show 62 per cent of all drownings in Alberta happen between May and September, and 28 per cent of all drownings happen in a lake or pond.
The report also says for every fatal drowning there are six non-fatal drownings that result in an emergency department visit or hospitalization. One in four hospital admissions are non-fatal drownings in children under five years old, while 45 per cent of all non-fatal drowning hospital admissions were children under 10.
“Young children make a large portion of those non-fatal drownings and it’s really important that we protect our most vulnerable and I just can’t emphasize enough the importance of active supervision in staying within arms’ reach of all time.”
In a social media post, the Mahogany Homeowners Association says “due to an incident this Sunday evening, our main beach will be closed until Tuesday, May 5 at 9:00 a.m.”
Last August, two men in their 20s died after drowning in Mahogany Lake. A petition was started days later in hopes of mandating the presence of lifeguards and trained first aid responders at all recreational water sites.
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