The residents in Saddle Ridge are grieving after a 5-year old boy, Raheel Uddin after being pulled from a retention pond.
The emergency crew was notified of a missing child in the community of Saddle Ridge near 88th Avenue and 60th Street N.E. around 4:30 PM. The police reported that Uddin died sometime after being pulled out from the water.
According to Saima Jamal, co-founder of the Syrian Refugee Support Group, Uddin and his family came to Canada from Bangladesh and reached out to the support center around 3 years ago. The boy had autism and attracted to water.
Special care
The child could not speak, had seizures and other distinct qualities. Uddin’s mother, Rozina Mina had to monitor him 24/7. Mina recently left her job as a paralegal 2 years ago, so she can take care of the boy full time. Several family members were home when the boy went missing. The family believes the boy might have snuck out at a back door before he went to the retention pond.
According to Mina, Uddin just finished kindergarten and going to start Grade 1 in September at the Providence School.
On Friday afternoon, Uddin was found in the water by a concerned resident who was out for the missing boy. The officers on the scene executed CPR before the arrival of the EMS at the pond around 5:15 PM.
The body was initially taken to the Peter Lougheed Centre in a serious condition after he was pulled from the pond.
According to Chief Harley Spate of the Calgary Fire Department Battalion, children should wear life jackets when on or near bodies of water and warns parents to closely monitor when playing near lakes, ponds, and rivers in Calgary.
For more information about this story, click here to learn.
LEARN MORE
Learn how to help by enrolling in a class in CPR training and for more information, check out these sources: