From James Malek
Kennebec River, Maine, September 10; 8,600 cfs. There was a near flush drowning/ immediate evacuation. A female kayaker flipped and swam in “Big Mama” and spent well over a minute underwater in a hydraulic, and went unconscious. When I got to her, she was showing no signs of alertness or movement, and began showing the signs of shock, but was breathing and had a pulse, so compressions aren’t entirely necessary. She slowly began regaining consciousness, and slowly began to move, which somewhat simultaneously eased the shock symptoms, but multiple times she faded in and out.
While I treated for shock, we devised an evacuation route. Being in the upper Kennebec Gorge/the wilderness of Maine, evacuation was a challenge and cell phone service was nonexistent. There was a raft nearby, so we loaded her into the raft, and paddled to the closest point that we could get her off the river. Before the rapid “Magic Falls”, we pulled over and got her off the raft. At this point, she began puking up water, but she still went back into dips of unconscious. Before the rapid, there isn’t a path, but there is a path after Magic falls. We decided that taking her through the rapid would be a risk to high to be taken, so we got her on land, and two people walked her through the brush to the path. From where she got out of the river to the takeout parking lot was miles, so I kayaked down to the takeout, where I reached the satellite phone and called for emergency services.
While on the phone, one of the woman’s friends came with me to find the woman, where we ran in to help get her out. I kept blowing my whistle, to no response, but eventually I heard a whistle back, so we kept going. After some running, I found her. At this point, she was walking with only one person helping her (the other person walked back to her raft) so I helped her out of the forest. When she started moving more and more, she regained more and more consciousness, and was almost completely recovered by the time we got her to the parking lot. Most of the decisions we made were a combination of me and multiple other people throwing ideas until we found the best one. I did not have all of the answers for everything immediately, but a group of people who didn’t know each other whatsoever worked together and made all of the right choices, and that’s all that matters.
Whitewater is amazing, and fun, and daring, but there is an incredibly large risk factor. The slightest mistake can result in the largest consequence. I wish I could’ve done more/ been a better, faster help, but she’s alright and that’s all that matters. I’m still in my first real year of whitewater, so I’m glad I had this experience early, so I can learn from it and am better prepared for the next accident that will happen, but I hope that day never comes.
