Learning from a successful life saving rescue

Words and photos:
Michael Gallion

Learning from a successful life saving rescue

First, all the paddlers involved in the rescue are fine and well. We all love paddlesport and are shaken but happy to return to the water to do what we love. We recognised that the rescue was life-saving, but training kicked in to save our friend. We decided to summarise the event, learning and thoughts and hope this is helpful to others as well. 

The key essence of this rescue was time; it had to be a quick rescue, quick thinking, perseverance and using ingenuity to overcome problems. Rescue situations are not like training scenarios, and many factors play a role. In this case, where a paddler was trapped with their head underwater is one of the worst-case scenarios to be faced with.

Initially, we felt inadequate, incompetent, helpless and a failure despite the successful outcome and thought it was down to luck. When we reviewed the video, we realised that we did many things right, and that was due to our training. In addition, we thought of what else we could learn from this to be even better prepared for the future. We learned that we could practise more, to have more tools available as every situation is different and instinctive behaviour due to training can make the difference.

What happened:

We ran a popular rapid on the River Dee and were all happy and competent to do the run. We have run the rapid before, and the set-up was clear, with the two most experienced kayakers going first and keeping enough space between paddlers. Then the kayakers would stay in the eddies below the rapid, as this is the position of highest impact for a rescue.

The last paddler had a failed roll at the bottom of the rapid and got ready for a second roll when the water pushed the paddler near the bridge pillar. The paddler then got snagged while trying to roll. The paddler removed the spray deck, and the boat floated away.

The other two kayakers knew the situation was very serious at this stage. No words were needed, and the first kayaker paddled up by the bridge, trying to grab and dislodge the paddler, thinking the person was just held underwater by the water pressure.

Unfortunately, the grip was not good enough to dislodge the paddler. The first kayaker had to roll out and drifted a little downstream. Once that happened, the second kayaker approached more carefully and managed to find a way to exit the boat onto a small ledge and grab something of the submerged paddler.

The kayaker had the intuition to take the knife and started to cut something. He described it as wanting to do something rather than be seen doing nothing, and cutting was the only thing possible at this stage. This intuition was life-saving. It took 30-60 seconds until the paddler was free, by which time the paddler had been underwater for 90 seconds.

Once the paddler was released, the paddler floated unconsciously, where the downstream kayaker managed to grab the paddler and held the head above the water. The paddler was not breathing (open eyes, blue lips and cramped hands).

The action was to shake the paddler in the water and hold the head backwards and above the water. There was no nearby exit, and the kayaker needed to float the rescued paddler to the get-out as the first option, which was a few hundred metres away and continued to shake. We were prepared to perform CPR (remove the BA if needed) and had already requested an ambulance.

Fortunately, the paddler became conscious while floating and recovered enough to grab the line at the eddy. We believed that the paddler had not breathed in water, but we kept an eye on the symptoms of secondary drowning for the next 36 hours.

What happened after the rescue

After we were all back on dry land, we tried to process the rescue, which was difficult. It helped us to speak on the way back in the car, but we also used WhatsApp to check on each other over the next few days. The next day we realised that it affected us all differently, and we had different perceptions of what happened. The ‘rescuer’ asked themselves, what should I have done differently? The feeling of guilt and helplessness or incompetence was there.

The kayaker who paddled and first attempted to dislodge the submerged paddler didn’t manage to get a good hold and wondered what the better way to approach was. Should he have gone back behind the second paddler and tried to throw a line over etc.? The kayaker on the bridge felt helpless and did think of alternative ways. The kayaker who cut wanted to do something but wondered if cutting was correct and felt guilty breathing while the person underwater could not. We had flashbacks, and feeling helpless while a friend could die in front of us was horrible.

When we watched the video, we did feel better that we reacted instinctively (due to training) and focused on being fast. We knew what was needed and just looking at each other made clear how difficult the situation was. We were focused and did things in time, and the person was under the water for only 90 seconds; we worked as a team, completing different tasks in the end.

The paddler beneath the water tried to get to the quick release as this option may have been snagged but could not reach over with the opposite hand. The paddler reported staying calm, avoiding breathing in (up to the point of blackout), but didn’t notice the rescuers were around and wondered where they were. The paddler stayed calm even when thinking it may be impossible to get out.

Our club has a good support network, and we contacted experienced paddlers who came to help us talk about the experience. This allowed us to reflect and process the different feelings we were going through.

It was essential for us to focus from ‘we had a bad incident’ to understand that we had a ‘successful rescue’.

We needed to recognise that our training and practising the skills helped us. The learning from this rescue will help us further to do even more training for the future. It is key to paddle with people (from the club, but also from anywhere) who you trust and who have your back, and an environment where each paddler feels supported off the water.

What did we learn, and what can we do in the future

We reflected on the rescue and thought about what we could learn.  The first important aspect is paddling with people with a common safety culture. In our club and environment, this is the case and encourages training early on, with practice days and where we have BC-qualified coaches and leaders supporting groups. We also support each other so that no one feels under pressure to run a rapid and be able to walk around a feature where they feel this is the better choice. The fourth kayaker did choose this option on that day.

The club supports coaches by paying for these qualifications. We have people in the club who can also support the emotional aspects of dealing with complex rescue situations. We do feel very grateful for that.

The second lesson we learned is that using good equipment is essential. The rescued paddler knew how to use the quick-release, and before paddling, we check for snag risks. All paddlers carry knives, slings, throwlines, first aid kits, and phones and use brightly coloured BAs and helmets.

The third lesson is that processing events like that also requires good support. Thinking errors can happen and cause more traumatic stress, and recognising and supporting each other is essential. We all love paddlesport and, without a doubt, look forward to our next paddle. Dealing with the effect of such a rescue is critical to allow us to keep having fun while we paddle. It’s easy to say we accept the consequences, but only once you are close to experiencing them do you realise its actual meaning.

There are things we can do now to improve our skills. We are keen to practise more related skills to access the knife (for paddler underwater, but also rescuer) and thinking of that. We want to practise more scenarios where we need to react fast for a paddler with a head underwater, practising to exit the boat in more tricky locations to be able to help others.

We also want to encourage more paddlers to do their safety training and think of being prepared to save a life when needed.

Finally, what got snagged?

It needs to be clarified what got snagged. The kayaker cutting was unsure which released the paddler, and he cut through the safety harness and the side of the BA. The thought had been that the release happened after the safety harness was cut.
There were tear marks on the soft side material and a mark of a potential snag on the BA.