Kelly Kenoyer
Of The New Era
Four different agencies and at least a dozen bystanders helped rescue a young boy trapped in the rapids at McKercher Park Saturday afternoon.
According to officials, the 10-year-old boy, who’s from Springfield, became trapped after jumping off some rocks into the rushing rapids, and bystanders helped keep his head above water while emergency personnel came to the rescue.
Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District received the call at 4:21 p.m. and had to dispatch rescuers from the scene of a separate accident on Highway 20 to assist. The Oregon Department of Forestry, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and units from Brownsville Fire responded as well.
The rescue took over an hour, due to the speed of the rushing water and the way the boy’s leg was trapped.
Linn County Sheriff’s Department had not released the child’s name at press time.
“This was a complicated and challenging rescue which would not have been possible were it not for the quick thinking and selfless acts of many civilians who were in the right place at the right time and so willing to render aid,” said a statement from Sweet Home Fire District.
Austin Sills, 19, was one of the civilians on the scene when the boy got trapped. He saw people holding the boy up to keep his head above water and ran over to help.
“We all decided that we needed to get more bodies in the water, so then they could reduce the water flow from hitting the kid,” he said.
Sills later heard from rescuers that the boy had gone over a “mini waterfall” and put his foot down underneath. There, it got caught in a crevasse, he said.
Sills and his friends Paige Goodwin, Chayla Nelson and Isaiah Burns, jumped in the rushing water to help block the flow, and stood in the water for an hour and a half until the child was rescued, he said. They were joined by at least a dozen others.
“I was very tired. Standing in water that’s moving that fast and having to hold yourself up by your legs and arms and stuff, my legs were absolutely dead.”
The rescue took a long time because of how badly the boy’s leg was trapped, and how fast the water was flowing, according to Julie Mayfield, Sweet Home Fire’s assistant to the chief.
Once first responders arrived, a scuba diver got in to look closely at where the boy’s leg was trapped, and others organized to stop the water flowing, first with a tarp, then with flotation devices, Sills said. The tarp ripped in the current, and the flotation devices didn’t make much difference where the water was deep, Sills added.
The rescuers finally succeeded in creating an eddy by using backboards – the plastic boards EMTs use to carry those with spinal injuries – as shields against the water, said Julie Mayfield, Sweet Home Fire’s assistant to the chief.
Sills said those who were closest to the current used the boards as shields, while others stood behind to support them.
“Right by where the kid was, it was a little above waist high, but in the deeper parts it was up to your neck,” he said.
Sills said the boy’s mother was sitting on a rock beside him talking him through it for the entire rescue.
He said rescuers were able to get a life vest on the boy and tie ropes around him. When they began to pull on him, he screamed in pain.
“He was screaming bloody murder – like it was the worst screaming I’ve heard in my entire life. It was horrible,” he said.
But the boy finally was freed after more than an hour in the water.
“He was really exhausted,” Sills said.
Sweet Home Fire reported that the “lucky little boy went home tonight thanks to a joint effort by so many people and agencies.”
The boy’s parents took him to the hospital themselves after a warm-up in the ambulance.
The fire department suggests visitors should be cautious when recreating in rivers in the area. “Please remember to wear a personal flotation device. If you are floating a river, the safest way to do so is with your feet pointed downstream and your toes up. Watch for strainers such as downed trees or other debris, and never float with anything tied to you such as a cooler or other objects.”
Sweet Home Fire also thanked LCSO, Brownsville Fire and ODF for their efforts, and extended the gratitude to the civilians who helped save the little boy’s life.
“You have once again proven that our community is full of good people and we are proud to serve you.”