The Lithuanian rafter who was trapped for 20 hours before the amputation. Photo: Tasmanian police
In a harrowing rescue, authorities were able to free a 69-year-old Lithuanian man who became trapped between rocks and swiftly moving water on Tasmania’s Franklin River this weekend. The man was reportedly scouting a rapid with the rest of his crew when he slipped on the stone and became trapped in what many call a sieve in river parlance, where water moves through tightly spaced rocks, but trees and other debris (like humans) aren’t able to move through.
These scenarios can be a death trap for river runners. But this rafter was saved, although he had to lose a limb in the process. Tasmanian rescue teams worked for hours to free the man from the river, but he was wedged “like an hourglass” in between the giant stones. The rescue team reportedly set up pulley systems to try to pull the man out, and even tried to move the boulders with air bags and hydraulic tools, to no avail. At the 20-hour point, the team eventually had to amputate the man’s leg to free him. He’s still in critical condition in a Tasmanian hospital, according to The Guardian.
“This was the most challenging case that I have ever taken part in,” said Mitch Parkinson, an intensive care flight paramedic with Ambulance Tasmania. “This was an exceptionally strong and resilient man and he maintained that throughout the night, (during) our efforts to keep him warm as best as possible, to keep him fed and watered as much as we could.”
The man’s positive attitude amazed rescuers as he spoke through another Lithuanian doctor who was also on the rafting trip and acted as a translator after the accident occurred. Other friends of the man in his party supplied him with hot food and drinks as the rescuers worked.
“This rescue was the worst case scenario of the worst case scenario,” said Callum Herbert with the Tasmanian police. “He could not be physically removed and every available angle to try and manipulate him out, and every resource possible was used before the amputation.”
There were several discrepancies in reporting, as several outlets said the man was 65 years old, while others noted that he was 69. The American Whitewater accident database also reported that he was paddling a craft called a packraft, a hybrid between a raft and kayak that’s paddled by one person and can be folded down to carry on trails. However, aerial photographs make it look as though he might have been paddling a craft similar to a Russian Bublik, but shaped like a pair of attached kayaks and paddled by two-four people, which closer resembles a catamaran.
The accident is eerily similar to the Aron Ralston incident that occurred in Utah in 2003, when the climber was trapped in a slot canyon for five days after a boulder fell on his arm. He had to break his forearm and amputate his own limb before escaping the canyon.
The Franklin River is a famous river-running excursion in the Tasmanian wilderness. In fact, it’s the setting of the epic 1994 Richard Flanagan novel, Death of a River Guide, where guide Aljaz Cosini recounts his life as it flashes before his eyes as he lay drowning in the water.
