Re: [Paddlewise] Incapacitated partner

On Mon, Jun 15, 1998 at 09:26:12AM -0400, Sisler, Clyde wrote:
> Any thoughts on rescuing a paddling partner that has become
> incapacitated, maybe through a badly disclocated/broken shoulder/neck,
> maybe unconscious from stroke, heart attack or some other problem.
> Maybe in calm waters, maybe rough.

Having towed people (conscious) in whitewater situations, my comment
is that it's amazingly hard.  Try it sometime: have somebody hold
onto your stern and try paddling a hundred yards.  It gets *real*
interesting when you're trying to do this in class IV whitewater
*and* they're scared *and* they're holding onto their boat with
their other hand.

I have, fortunately, never had to deal with an unconscious victim,
but my general impression is that it's usually time to go swimming,
in order to get their face out of the water and possibly start CPR
while they're still in the water.  I would be *extremely* hesitant
to fasten myself or my boat to them into any kind of river situation
except for flatwater: there's all kinds of potential for bad things
to happen that will exacerbate the situtation.

Of course, deliberately going swimming in a major rapid is not necessarily
the right thing to do either.  It's very risky and could easily increment
the victim count by one.  But in some situations, it may be the right
thing to do.

Even thought much of it applies to whitewater situations, and a lot
of you aren't river paddlers, I'd really recommend that everyone get
a copy of "River Rescue", Bechdel & Ray's book, which is now in its
third edition.   There's a lot of useful content in there for everybody
who boats, including material on group tactics for rescue.

---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
rsk_at_gsp.org
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