The six-year-old boy who drowned in Taylor Creek Thursday afternoon has been identified as Vondrae Martin, a boy who nearly drowned in his grandparents’ pool a year ago and was revived by neighbours.
Emergency services headed to Garibaldi Park Thursday afternoon after receiving a 9-1-1 call reporting a missing child, possibly in need of water rescue.
A neighbour found him face up in the swollen and fast-flowing creek roughly 30 minutes later. B.C. Ambulance Service airlifted Vondrae to B.C. Children’s Hospital but the boy could not be revived.
The news is devastating for Chris Farrell, one of the neighbours who did intense CPR for more than 10 minutes, waiting for paramedics to arrive after the lifeless boy was found at the bottom of his grandparents’ pool on East 11th Street in North Vancouver last March 31.
Saving Vondrae’s life was an especially poignant moment for Farrell.
“I lost my son when he was 14 to a skateboard accident, three days after his birthday. It puts a whole life perspective on it,” Farrell said. “I was so grateful that I did save (Vondrae’s) life and on Easter Sunday, which was a miracle.”
Farrell struggled to put his emotions to words.
“It was sadness but also a bit of anger as well, if that makes any sense — that it happened a second time. I just felt so sad and a bit angry. It’s just a tragedy and it shocks tremendously,” he said.
On Nov. 22, the B.C. Ambulance Service bestowed the service’s Vital Link award to Farrell, his sister-in-law Margaret and Vondrae’s grandmother Jene Johnson at a ceremony at North Vancouver’s ambulance station.
There is no word from North Vancouver RCMP or the B.C. Coroners Service on how Vondrae wound up in the water Thursday.
“All we can say at this point is this case was reported to us and all those sorts of issues in terms of preventability issues and contributing factors, we look at but it’s way too early to go into any of that yet,” said Barb McLintock, coroner spokeswoman.
The province’s Child Protection Services unit is automatically tasked in cases like this, McLintock added.
“They always have that extra layer of oversight for kids,” she said.
Meanwhile, the North Vancouver school district is reaching out to the students and staff at Dorothy Lynas elementary where Vondrae was in kindergarten.
“It’s individual counselling, small group counselling, classroom counselling around the issue of grief and loss. A lot of it is open communication with the students,” said Brad Baker, the district’s head of the Safe and Caring Schools program. “A lot of it is to help them understand their own emotions. That’s the biggest thing.”
This is the second time in the last year the small school has had to cope with the death of a student. In May 2013, a Grade 5 student and her father were killed by a falling boulder while they were camping near Whistler.
“The atmosphere is obviously a struggle because it’s a huge loss for the school community. Unfortunately, it’s bringing up memories of the loss we had here a year ago with a student and her father,” Baker said.
“Grief is tough for anyone whether you’re an adult or a child, we’re just making sure to support each other, support the staff, too, along with the students,” he said.
For parents looking for help dealing with the issue at home, Baker recommends contacting the B.C. Grief Loss Centre and Hollyburn Family Services.
