Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 15/05) - When Eric McNair-Landry had finished paddling out to rescue a drowning boy on Aug. 8, he thought he was too late.

"He had been under 10 to 12 seconds. I wasn't even sure he was alive," he said.

Eric McNair-Landry, front, and his co-worker Mike Mifflin were quick to react when they saw a small boy in a makeshift boat capsize in Frobisher Bay on Aug. 8. They ran home, grabbed this experimental canoe, and headed to the rescue.

It was an ordinary day at the Iqaluit Visitor's Centre. McNair-Landry, an employee there, was working on a map of local rivers.

"A young kid came in and asked to use the phone. He said his brother was out in a boat and was in trouble," said McNair-Landry.

The staff at the visitors centre thought the boy was in trouble for taking a boat, but soon realized that they were far from the truth.

"We went upstairs and looked around. It took us a few seconds, but we spotted him by the breakwater," said McNair-Landry.

The eight-year-old boy was paddling into Frobisher Bay, in the water behind the Elders Centre, but he was not in a boat.

He was sitting on a large piece of pink coloured styrofoam and was paddling with what looked like a two-by-four, said McNair-Landry.

"We watched him paddle for about 40 seconds and then he flipped," said McNair-Landry.

McNair-Landry and co-worker Mike Mifflin had the same thought at the same time, go get the canoe.

They raced to McNair-Landry's nearby home, grabbed the small one-person canoe and headed to the water.

On the way to the water, McNair-Landry remembered the story behind the canoe. It was a prototype that a company had given to his mother - a former canoe racer - to test out.

It was never put into production because it was unstable and tended to flip over. He didn't have time to think because once he reached the water, people gathered at the shore gave him a push and he was off.

Once he reached the boy, he was in for a shock. "He was in the water with his hands coming up toward the surface. His eyes and mouth were open," recalled McNeil-Landry.

He grabbed the boy by the hands, taking care not to flip the canoe. After a very long 10 seconds, the boy began to cough up a white foamy substance.

The rescuer then started for shore.

"I figured that CPR was best done in the ambulance that was waiting on the shore," McNeil-Landry said.

Before he could reach land, two men in a larger, motorized canoe picked up the boy and made it back to shore.

The boy was sent to Baffin Regional Hospital. Hospital officials have refused numerous requests for an update on the boy's condition.