A smart boy who was full of life and had the best personality. That is how one family member remembers 10-year-old Legacy Cooke.
The boy died in hospital Wednesday morning after being pulled from Pike Lake, southwest of Saskatoon, Tuesday afternoon.
Cooke was found unresponsive on the shoreline by emergency crews when they arrived.
Saskatchewan’s coroner’s service confirmed to Global News on Thursday the boy died as the result of drowning.
“He was loved beyond measure,” Marylea Lacerte told Global News in an online message.
Lacerte said Cooke lived with severe combined immunodeficiency, or Bubble Boy syndrome.
“He had a bone marrow transplant and even through the hard days, still had the best smile and his silly humour,” the family friend wrote.
“He defied the odds and make everyone’s hearts full.”
The fire department originally identified Cooke as being nine, but Lacerte says the boy is 10.
His grandmother, Zoe Bunnie, described Cooke in a social media post as a “miracle baby from the start.”
“(His) silly humor, his smile that would lighten the room, the energy he had was unreal,” she said.
“You truly were my superhero my lil man.”
The Saskatoon Fire Department said it joined other emergency responders shortly after 4 p.m. after reports that the boy had gone missing near the water.
Crews started CPR and the boy was taken to hospital by STARS air ambulance in critical condition.
Fire department officials said it is not believed the boy was wearing a life-jacket or personal flotation device when he was pulled from the water.