KUALA LUMPUR: It has been almost 20 years, but, Umar Kamarudin, 67, still remembers clearly how he saved a child from drowning in a swimming pool.
He wonders how the boy is now and is hoping to meet him.
Umar, who retired from the police as a Superintendent in Bukit Aman, said he had made several attempts, including using social media, to locate the child.
"I hope to be able to meet him and see how he is now that he is an adult," he told Bernama recently.
According to the retired policeman, who is now a project director at a local construction company, the last time he heard from the child was when he received a thank you card from Desmond Kwek Bo Yang a few months after the incident.
"The card read 'Dear Uncle Umar bin Kamarudin, Thank you very much! From Desmond Kwek Bo Yang. I was very happy to receive the card and have kept it (the card), which is the only memory I have of him.
"I don't how they got my house address and I didn't know how to contact them at that time," he said.
Recalling the incident 19 years ago, Umar said it was on May 8, 2005, when he was with his wife and their two children at the swimming pool of KL Plaza Suites, now known as Fahrenheit Suites, to spend their weekend.
The then Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) was sitting about one metre away from the children's pool watching his two children playing when he saw a boy, who was about six or seven years old, in the adult pool frantically trying to keep afloat.
"I looked away for just a few minutes and when I turned back, I saw the boy was no longer there. I then ran to the spot where I last saw him and he was at the bottom of the pool. I shouted at the crowd to get the child.
"He was already limp with a pale face... my thought then was to save him and I performed CPR which I learned in the police force," he said, adding that there were no lifeguards at the swimming pool at the time of the incident.
According to the father of four, the noisy atmosphere at the swimming pool turned quiet with everybody in shock.
He said the CPR helped and the boy regained consciousness.
"Not long after, the emergency team arrived and took the child in an ambulance to the hospital for further treatment. That was the last time I saw the child.
"It was an experience I cannot forget. If given the chance, I want to see him and ask how he is. To say hello to him and his family," he said.-- BERNAMA