Forest Park is grieving after 5-year-old Coumba Baal, a child with autism, died Sunday following more than a month of intensive treatment at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She had been pulled from a retention pond behind a home in the 600 block of Brunner Drive on March 28, a quiet corner of the neighborhood that now carries a much heavier memory.
Police say officers were called just after 5:30 p.m. that day and arrived to find family members performing CPR. An uncle told investigators he spotted the child’s mother’s cellphone on a path between houses that leads to the pond, followed the trail, then rushed into the water after seeing Coumba floating face-down. He dragged her out before Forest Park medics took her to Cincinnati Children’s, where she was treated in the pediatric ICU for weeks before she died, as reported by FOX19.
Drowning risk for children on the spectrum
Public-health researchers have been sounding the alarm on tragedies like this for years. A 2017 analysis from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found that children with autism face a sharply higher risk of fatal drowning and urged families and providers to prioritize swimming instruction soon after diagnosis. The CDC likewise reports that deaths among people with autism are far more likely to involve drowning and recommends formal swim lessons, along with layered safeguards such as fencing, door alarms and constant close supervision near any body of water.
Local context and prevention pushes
Coumba’s death comes amid mounting concern across the region about retention ponds and wandering among children with autism. Community reporting has documented earlier suburban drownings that spurred calls for steps such as the proposed "Joshua Alert" and stronger barriers around man-made ponds. At the same time, medical reporting has highlighted that nearly half of children with autism are estimated to attempt to wander at some point, and that accidental drowning makes up a large share of fatal elopement cases, according to coverage summarized by MDedge.
The Hamilton County coroner has confirmed that Baal died at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, as reported by FOX19. Officials have not released further details, and the family is being given space to grieve. Safety advocates say the case is one more painful reminder that neighborhoods with unguarded ponds should take straightforward precautions like door alarms, secure pool or pond fencing, and early swim instruction to reduce the chances of another life being lost, per the CDC.
