It took more than 20 hours to rescue him. A man in his sixties had to have an amputation after an accident on the sidelines of a kayaking excursion in Tasmania (Australia) this Friday, November 22, reports The Guardian.
The thrill-seeker was part of a group of 11 tourists on an excursion on the Franklin River, in the west of the island. Around 2:30 p.m., while he was near rapids on the bank, he fell and his leg got stuck between rocks. He manages to alert the emergency services using his connected watch an hour later. They set off and several units were mobilized: police, water rescue and firefighters.
But the location where it was located was particularly complicated to access, which did not facilitate the work of the emergency services. “Several attempts to extract the man from the rocks were made on Friday evening and overnight, but did not work,” Tasmania Police explained in a post shared on social media. A medical team was alongside the sixty-year-old throughout the rescue operation, in particular to provide him with care and sedatives, while his body was still partially submerged.
While this Saturday morning it was still impossible to evacuate the victim, his state of health deteriorated. The rescuers had to make a terrible choice with his agreement. “In consultation with the patient, the decision was made to amputate his leg to facilitate his rescue. The operation was carried out by the medical team, with the help of specialized equipment,” police said. The man's left knee was amputated.
“Every effort was made to extract the man before making the difficult decision to amputate his leg,” said Doug Oosterloo, deputy police commissioner, who describes a “life and death” question that led to this operation.
The patient was airlifted and then transported by helicopter to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where he is currently in a critical condition. The man is a foreign tourist whose nationality has not been released by Tasmania Police. Authorities are currently working to contact his family.
The ten other tourists alongside him will soon be interviewed by the police in order to understand how the accident could have happened. The first elements suggest that the victim was scouting in the rafting area: “They were not in the kayaks. They were on the shore. The man was scouting the scene and he slipped and fell into this rock crevice,” explained Doug Oosterloo.
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