Frantic dad performs CPR on tot found in pond as weekend marred by water mishaps

An 18-month-old remains in critical condition after a near drowning in Ajax over the weekend.

The boy’s parents frantically performed CPR and dialed 911 after finding him face-down in a pond on their property Sunday morning.

Police, paramedics and firefighters responded and continued emergency first aid, reviving the child during transport to a local hospital.

The boy was later transferred to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children where he was listed in critical condition on Monday.

The incident was one of several water-related mishaps in Ontario over the weekend in which five people died and at least three others were injured.

The dead include Christopher Alkerton, 18, of Niagara Falls, Ont., who drowned Sunday at Rock Point provincial park on Lake Erie.

Ontario Provincial Police said Alkerton was just a short distance from shore when he disappeared below the surface.

His friends and others swimmers in the area tried to locate Alkerton, but were unsuccessful. Police searched the area with a helicopter and police boat until finding the man’s body on the bottom of the lake.

An autopsy was to be conducted to determine the exact cause of death, which police said is presumed to be drowning.

Two men died of apparent drownings on Saturday, including Bun Chang Tang, 31, of Toronto, at Wasaga Beach. He was rushed to Collingwood General and Marine Hospital, but did not survive.

In Gravenhurst, an 84-year-old man identified as George Herczeg went swimming in Lake Muskoka on Saturday afternoon but did not return. Police later found his body in shallow water near a dock.

One death was caused by a boating accident on Chemong lake near Peterborough, Ont., on Sunday.

Paul Heffernan, 54, of Innismore, Ont., died after he was thrown from a boat after crashing into two docks and several other boats. A female passenger was also thrown from the boat but her injuries were minor.

Provincial police, meanwhile, have released the name of the Perth, Ont., man who died when jumping off a cliff into Otty Lake on Saturday.

Police said the body of Michel Daoust, 26, was recovered by a dive team and an autopsy is expected to be performed this week.

In the Niagara region on Saturday, a boy was pulled from a motel pool at around 9:45 p.m. He was transferred to Buffalo Children’s Hospital in critical condition. Police had not yet released the boy’s age or hometown.

On Sunday, a man suffered deep cuts to his leg from a propeller after falling out of a boat on the Ottawa River and being run over by the vessel.

The man, reported to be in his 20s, was believed to be in stable condition.