I've been guiding boats down the Nantahala nearly every day lately. It's a lot of fun and I have boatloads of stories. Most are funny but last Saturday I had something really bad happened. Most of the time rescuing ppl is all fun and games. Sometimes I go to the falls and rescue ppl just for fun and practice. The vast majority of them weren't from my boat; an example, I came across a Boy Scout standing on a rock in the middle of the river when I was the last boat coming down, and I can't count how many funyaks have "dumptrucked" and I picked up the ppl.
Last Satuday I took a boat with a 66 y.o. woman, her daughter and granddaughter. We got near the end and I gave them instructions about what to do if I fell out of the raft at the "Bump" which we call the "Guide Ejector" (which had never happened.) I asked the group if they wanted to run the Bump and they all said yes and so we did. when we hit it the old woman bounced out onto the rocks and I saw her hit her head. The water was too rough for me to do a "boat rescue" which is customary and I thought she had a concussion and a broken arm. I dove in after her in whitewater. I told her to keep her feet up and relax that we would be safe soon and I kept repeating that. I grabbed the two paddles and swam her nearly 500 yds. to the beach b/f the falls... as I approached other guides saw me dragging the old woman in 45 degree water and rushed to help. The woman ended up ok, just beat up. But I got credited for saving a life.

4 days later, My brother and I went fishing on the Hiwassee this evening. We came in and there was a man with no shirt laying on the boat ramp in Murphy. I yelled at him from the boat
and no response. We paddled hard and I jumped in and I ran to him trying to wake him up... He finally came around... He was startled but I calmed him down. I sai "Sir, are you ok?" "*sluggish* "yeah" "Sir can you plz look into my eyes?, ok, may I take your pulse please?" It was fairly normal. "Sir do you know where you are?" He didn't, but he looked around, "oh yeah, I'm at the Murphy boat ramp" "Sir, do you know how you got here?" "Yeah a friend dropped me off here a couple of days ago." "Do you know what you've done since then what's the last thing you remember?" "I was... loafering." "Sir do you have any pain in your body?" "Yeah, my heart hurts" I said "ok, do you have any other pain, can you feel your arms and legs, are they numb or painful?" "No" "Sir, I believe you need medical care, you are exhibiting signs of a heart attack." "Bullshit the only heart attack I've ever had was the woman I married!" " Please sir calm down, I'm only here b/c I care about you, I don't mean to bother you I just want to make sure you're ok, I'm a river guide." A river guide??? I don't need no damn help from a river guide!!!" "Sir I am a trained professional and I believe you are having a heart attack." "no no I'm fine, and he went back to sleep, I had no cell phone so we went home has fast as we could and I called 911 and told the the specific details. Then on the scanner I heard the EMT's talking to the Dr. " Someone was here a few minutes ago and reported he was not lucid but had a regular pulse, we just administered 4 aspirin and glycerine we're en route. The person reported that the patient was suffering mind chest pain but while we where talking to him he developed major chest pain and a heart attack at the ramp.

So, as a counterfactual, I've saved two ppl's lives in a week, neither is for sure, but that guy prolly would have died on the boat ramp... if it weren't for my rafting training I wouldn't have been able to do anything or known what to do. It's freaking me out a little.

6/22/2006 2:47:18 AM

Quote :

"boatloads"

6/22/2006 9:11:58 AM

I didn't read all those words, but in summary, how many people did you end up suspending in your little anecdote?

6/22/2006 9:14:55 AM

^ahahahahaha

6/22/2006 9:18:51 AM

I was on the Nantahala once and a lady in the boat in front of us fell out. There was no guide in the boat (he was in ours) and one of the people decided it would be okay to grab her hand and pull her along with the boat. Thus she was being dragged backward by the boat and she kept hitting her back on rocks (you could hear her shout every time one hit). Then, when they tried to pull her in by her life vest, it came off because she hadn't put it on correctly. At that point the guide jumped out of our boat and pulled her to shore. I heard afterward that she had some scrapes and bruises, but was ok.

[Edited on June 22, 2006 at 11:27 AM. Reason : .]

6/22/2006 11:26:15 AM

Well that guy got taken to the hospital and had his nap interupted (sp) so I guess that could count as one.

6/22/2006 11:32:14 AM