Three Manitoba children have died in separate drowning incidents over the past five days.
Manitoba RCMP are investigating a pair of child drownings a few days apart at lakes in northern Manitoba. In a third incident Monday evening, another child drowned in a retention pond near a Portage la Prairie home.
Officers from the Island Lake detachment were called to the local nursing station on Garden Hill First Nation around 4 p.m. Thursday, where a 23-month-old boy was being treated after being found in a lake outside his home that afternoon.
The toddler was taken to Winnipeg, but died in hospital Sunday.
Police said the boy was in the care of his older siblings when the incident took place.
The second incident took place Sunday evening at St. Theresa Point First Nation, when two 10-year-old girls swam out too far and began to struggle in the water, police said.
A bystander was able to rescue one of the girls, who has since recovered, but the second girl went under the water and couldn’t be immediately found.
A First Nation safety officer with dive equipment retrieved her from the water, and she was taken to the nursing station where she was pronounced dead.
On Monday around 7:20 p.m., Portage la Prairie RCMP were called about a drowning near an Old Bridge Road home.
A two-year-old boy wandered away from a group of family members, police said, and was quickly discovered in a retention pond near the home.
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He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Christopher Love from the Lifesaving Society Manitoba said drowning can happen in a matter of seconds.
“Drowning actually is very fast, very silent,” he told 680 CJOB’s The News, noting drowning happens under the surface and it can often go undetected depending on water conditions and clarity.
Love said if someone is pushed or falls into water they could be gasping for air but inhaling water instead.
“They can be going unconscious in as little as 10 to 15 seconds after entering the water.”
Children between 0 and 4 are most susceptible to drowning accidents, Love said, adding he cautions people who want to swim in lakes or rivers but are used to swimming in pools.
RCMP say none of the drownings are considered suspicious.
– with files from Global News’ Katherine Dornian
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