Kayaking tourist has leg amputated in 20-hour rescue after getting trapped in white water rapids

A tourist is fighting for their life after a 20-hour rescue mission to save him after he fell into heavy white water rapids.

The 69-year-old man got into trouble on Friday in Tasmania, Australia, after getting trapped between rocks on the Franklin River and sparking a huge emergency response the following day to help him. He needed to have his leg amputated and remains in hospital with life-changing injuries

It’s understood the injured man has more than half a century experience in white water rafting and had been with a group of friends from Lithuania when the incident occurred. He slipped on a rock and his leg became wedged underwater. After hours of trying to get him out and a number of failed attempts to free him, rescuers were left with no choice but to amputate his leg before his condition got worse.

Tasmania Police constable Callum Herbert, who was at the scene, described the situation as one of the most intense he’s ever seen in the area. He said: “Most entrapments would be more simple than this. This patient was so entrapped it’s involved an amputation of a limb. It’s pretty much the worst case scenario you could get aside from drowning.

“He’s fallen into the river in an awkward position. The circumstances where he could not be physically removed, every available angle to try to manipulate him out and every available.”

Ace Petrie, a swift rescue technician in Tasmina, praised the man and his crew for their efforts during the tiring rescue. He said: “His rafting crew had done a great job in securing him as best they could. He was sort of wedged, I would describe it like an hourglass, he had his knee trapped in the rocks in a deep section of that rapid, news.com reports.

“There were a number of hazards we had to deal with and work around to gain access to the patient and make a further assessment of his entrapment. That rapid was moving quite fast, water level for the Franklin River was half of what it normally was.”

Mr Petrie detailed how the rescue was made much harder than expected due to the hazardous environment everyone was in and the fact the river was at a tricky level. He said the group were lucky the weather was “kind to them” and the water level didn’t rise. He added: “At the time when he went in, it was roughly around his chest height. As the hours went on, the water level were dropping but it wasn’t dropping fast enough as how we would have liked. I was quite surprised with the water temp, it wasn’t as cold as it certainly can be especially in the winter.”

The decision was made by medical professionals and in consultation with the man, allowing him to be winched to safety and airlifted to Royal Hobart Hospital. Mr Petrie said the efforts to free the man were arduous, with rescuers even attempting to use the jaws of life equipment underwater.

Mr Petrie said the situation was also hard due to the kayaker’s lack of English and being unable to speak it. He only spoke broken English but was able to inform them he thought his leg was broken. Luckily, one of his travelling friends was a Lithuanian doctor who could translate some of the medical information they were trying to get across to him.

Intensive care flight paramedic Mitch Parkinson, from the Ambulance Tasmania, admitted there were a lot of complex issues with the amputation. He said: “There is an incredible ethical (and) legal component to that discussion and then we lay in the complexities of it needing to be done to achieve his rescue and it being in broken English and being shared through a lithuanian translator.

“We did our best to convey the realities of his entrapment. When it came to discussing the realities of his entrapment and the decisions that were being made in real time and the ones that might be made into the next morning, he was an exceptional resource to us and we benefited greatly by him being present.

“There was an understanding that there was every conceivable effort made through the breadth of technicians that were present, the resources available in remote Tasmania, this was not a discussion nor a decision made lightly but it was one made with the breadth information and resourcing we had available to us.”

Mr Parking was surprised at the man’s outlook on the gruesome situation, saying he maintained an “exceptionally resilient persona” while being “strong and robust”.

Previously, Tasmanian Police acting assistant commissioner Doug Oosterloo said there was an immense effort put into the mission in order to help the man. He added: ““This rescue was an extremely challenging and technical operation and an incredible effort over many hours to save the man’s life. Every effort was made to extract the man before the difficult decision to amputate his leg. The professionalism and commitment of all emergency responders is to be commended.”

The man was kayaking with friends in a private tour group on Friday afternoon when his leg became wedged between rocks in the rapids, trapping him. His smartwatch made a call to emergency services about an hour later. Rescuers from Ambulance Tasmania, Tasmania Police, Surf Life Saving Tasmania, the SES and the Tasmania Fire Service came to his aid.

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