Jet boat operator rescues injured rafter
Jun. 27—What started out as a whitewater jet boat tour on the lower Rogue River turned into a rescue mission when the jet boat operator helped evacuate a rafter with a compound leg fracture.
The Curry County Sheriff's Office is praising the efforts of John Carl, a boat operator with Jerry's Rogue Jets based in Gold Beach on the Oregon Coast. The jet boats run from the mouth of the Rogue River upstream.
At about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, June 19, Carl was operating a daily wilderness whitewater tour into the Rogue River's Wild Section. During the downstream return leg of the trip, he was flagged down by a group of rafters at a camping spot near Solitude Rapid, the sheriff's office said.
Carl saw a member of the rafting party lying near the water with a compound fracture of the lower leg. The rafter broke the leg from a fall, the sheriff's office said.
A compound fracture is when a broken bone has pierced through the skin. Such breaks require urgent medical attention because of the high risk of infection, tissue damage and healing complications, according to orthopedic trauma doctors.
Carl radioed Paradise Lodge on the Rogue River and requested they relay a message to Agness-Illahe Fire & Rescue to meet the jet boat at Cougar Lane Lodge in Agness, 13 miles downstream, the sheriff's office said.
Members of the raft party fashioned a leg splint from wood and gauze to stabilize the fractured leg. The injured person was floated by raft to the edge of the jet boat and loaded onto the back of the boat. Carl asked his passengers whether anyone on board was medically trained to assist. A passenger who is a registered nurse volunteered to aid the injured person during the boat trip downriver, the sheriff's office said.
Agness-Illahe Fire & Rescue notified Cal-Ore Ambulance service of the incident and mobilized a Redwood Empire Air Care Helicopter to land in the parking lot of Cougar Lane Lodge. Carl arrived and delivered the patient to the waiting ambulance service to receive immediate medical attention, the sheriff's office said.
In addition to evacuating the injured rafter that day, Carl was transporting an injured hiker who had been trekking on the Rogue River Trail and rolled an ankle. He picked up the hiker at Paradise Lodge, the sheriff's office said.
"The Wild Section of the Rogue River is a spectacular section of the river but also remote and difficult to access," the sheriff's office said in a press release. "This section can only be accessed by jet boat, downriver rafting and hiking. Jerry's Rogue Jets is a valuable asset to the Rogue River community of power boaters, whitewater rafters and hikers. Jerry's Rogue Jets is routinely first on scene for many water-related incidents and has always answered the call of duty."
The sheriff's office thanked everyone involved for their coordinated evacuation of the injured rafter.
Jerry's Rogue Jets started as a service to bring mail to remote areas along the river beginning in 1895, then branched into adventure boat rides. It still carries mail 32 miles up the river to Agness, according to the company.
In May, a pilot and his wife made an emergency crash landing in the Rogue River near Galice after losing engine power. They climbed out of their plane and were ferried to shore by workers from OARS whitewater rafting company and Sierra Swift Water Rescue, which had been doing water rescue training nearby.
Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or valdous@rosebudmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.
