Rescue on the Franklin River, Tasmania

[Erica]

This a from a whitewater raft journey, but the accident is one any of us could have anywhere.

[And incidentally, this Franklin River is named for our very own John Franklin who died looking for the NorthWest Passage. He was for a time the governor of Tasmania.]

While boulder-hopping, the paddler slipped, fell, and his foot became jammed between two boulders. He was up to his chest in 10C water (about 40 F).

It is an epic story.

Trapped in the Rapids

 

[kahel]

what a story!

But he survived with a lot of luck and a lot of help.
Big respect to the doctor and the other comrades.

 

[DougK]

good story, thank you for posting..

this struck me,
"It’s a simple rock hop, one he’s made hundreds of times in his 50 years of rafting."

rock hopping is a young man's game. I don't rock hop anymore, have not for ten years at least (65 now).
It's one small hop for an old man, one big break for the leg ;-)
I went to a high school with a river through it, which was wonderful. We would spend free periods rock hopping back and forth.. but I was young then, and bounced instead of falling with a nasty cracking sound..

 

[Erica]

What impressed me was exactly the same phrase you quote above. I no longer rock hop either. But the point it drove home to me was that simple ordinary things one does all the time, can result in major injury in the wilderness.

I broke my ankle a few years ago just going outside the back door and down the steps. Just an ordinary daily action, but a new rain had wet the wood and only beaded up instead of soaking in. A simple slip and fall.

I think the ordinary things we do without thinking can be the places we most often get injured.