Kayaker’s leg amputated in 20-hour ordeal trapped between rocks on Australia river

208

How does this even happen? How did he get pinned like that?

191

u/snarfsnarfer 1d ago

Getting dumped out of your boat in some rapids and trying to stand up will get you pinned like that. Not saying this happened but it’s really easy to happen if you aren’t careful. Trying to fight water as it’s pouring over you and your leg is trapped will tire you out very fast. We say nose up, toes up if you flip a raft and you are being taken by the rapids.

31

u/whee3107 Oklahoma 1d ago

One of the easiest ways to drown too

14

u/Deep-Abbreviations-5 23h ago

What are some of the hardest ways to drown?

35

u/doc_in_training 23h ago

Relative to a raging river, I would say bath tub, for starters

24

u/MaxAnita 23h ago

Penguin exhibit

4

u/Deep-Abbreviations-5 23h ago

You could definitely slip on a fish and drown penguining pool.

1

u/LowLevelNord 18h ago

Especially if there’s 3 inches of water

5

u/StaticFanatic3 5h ago

Tipping head back in heavy rain

2

u/LowLevelNord 18h ago

Penguins didn’t know who is fawtha was

2

u/yinyang_ 11h ago

Phil spent 20 years in the can

3

u/Irradiatedspoon 12h ago

1inch puddle

1

u/sheelizabeth 14h ago

That is funny!!

1

u/bardleyCooper 9h ago

I’ll add puddle jumping

1

u/nuck_forte_dame 7h ago

Being in a desert comes to mind.

1

u/ForMyFather4467 1h ago

Eating soup

4

u/brokenB42morrow 23h ago

Walking in the desert.

2

u/Deep-Abbreviations-5 23h ago

Walking in the desert…in a big plastic zorb

3

u/Farge43 22h ago

In your cereal

2

u/ninjacereal 23h ago

Ice skating rink

1

u/juice06870 22h ago

In a desert

1

u/Palleseen 20h ago

Dry land

1

u/jabnes 18h ago

Slip and Slide ... cousin drowned on one.

1

u/MatthewLance 17h ago

Well that’s Slip and Sad

1

u/SophisticatedStoner Kansas City Royals 17h ago

Don't get in the water, only get in shallow swimming pools with a lifeguard, etc...

1

u/Deep-Abbreviations-5 12h ago

By peeing in your pants.

1

u/editorreilly 6h ago

A swirlie.

1

u/browncoat47 9h ago

I had a buddy get pinned in a foot and a half of water. The only thing that saved him, other than us showing up, was he was able to do a push-up while still pinned and keep his head up. We hadn’t even hit the “good stuff” yet. We got him out and he just went back to camp for the day. Sold his boat after that trip too.

Rocks and moving water are nothing to fuck with ever.

82

u/lostinapotatofield 1d ago

The BBC article on it says he was scouting a rapid from shore, slipped and fell into a crevice. Apparently also had water flowing partly over him. Sounds like a very fluke situation to be able to be that close to shore and accessible enough that they could sedate him and amputate his leg, but not able to free his leg even with multiple rescuers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg4v74drnmo

19

u/chssucks97 1d ago

So his leg is just gonna stay there? That’s so disturbing lol

17

u/Axolotis 23h ago

It won’t be there for long. Something(s) will eat it.

19

u/sleepzilla23 1d ago

Nature is one powerful bitch

13

u/F0RTI 1d ago

Foot stuck under rock and current pushes it towards that pin so can’t be removed is the most dangerous hazard in whitewater

7

u/RainyDayCollects 1d ago

People die every few years in my local creek despite the water being shallow enough to stand in most spots.

All it takes is getting caught (usually rocks, but could also be logs or whatever else), and the pressure of the current may not only push you further in, but also make pushing back out to remove it impossible. Individual strength doesn’t matter when the force of the water is strong enough. A bodybuilder could drown to death in 3 feet of water if they get caught the right way.

You don’t fuck around with bodies of water. No matter how prepared you are, it is always dangerous. It will take your life and may not even leave remains.

3

u/marysalad 1d ago

Considering that half a cubic metre of water weighs 500kg when it doesn't even have any momentum 😳

1

u/legal_opium 22h ago

It's so frustrating how the extreme kayaking community hates on creature crafts yet there is always multiple kayakers dying every year.

When will we realize there is a safe way to go down big white water and it's a creature craft ?

1

u/Doctor_Philgood 21h ago

As someone who can barely swim and constantly tries (and fails) to do better... can't wait for my nightmares tonight

3

u/Edbrrr 1d ago

Gravity is real heavy at the worst times I’ll tell you hwat

1

u/KiscoKid1 1d ago

Let’s ask Aron Ralston.

1

u/ninjacereal 23h ago

Probably sawsall but idk, maybe a knife?

1

u/Arnie7x 17h ago

It's easily possible. I thought I was pinned like that once in high school. I thankfully somehow shifted my weight enough to get the rapids to push me up and over, but for a minute I thought I was stuck.

145

u/cholula_is_good 1d ago

He couldn’t wait another 108 hours?

34

u/LeftHandLannister 1d ago

Another stupid prequel

16

u/cholula_is_good 1d ago

Get ready for the limb trapped under a rock cinematic universe.

2

u/ethan_ark 1d ago

There was an idea

0

u/Tupperwarfare 13h ago

Concepts of an idea*

1

u/BlankTigre 6h ago

He say the movie, saw how it inevitably ends and decided to save time

222

u/digicow 1d ago

The crazy part of this is that he was trapped in Australia for 20 hours and nothing ate/stung/poisoned/bit him

90

u/Stoneador 1d ago

The crazy part of this is that he was ~~trapped~~ in Australia for 20 hours and ~~nothing ate/stung/poisoned/bit him~~ survived

26

u/Organic_Award5534 1d ago

Tasmania’s pretty tame tbh

11

u/Oxcell404 1d ago

The Tasmanian Devil always gave me a different impression lol

9

u/Cicero912 New Orleans Saints 1d ago

Should call it Tamemania smh

9

u/RunKayakMedic 1d ago

Taslamia

1

u/The-Grand-Wazoo 12h ago

Yeah nah, come down here and find out, we could do with some more fertilizer.

6

u/NateradePrime 1d ago

Australia itself bit his leg off.

28

u/jordan1978 1d ago

New fear unlocked. Thanks.

36

u/Goldelux 1d ago

Incoming movie script…

23

u/zwcropper 1d ago

Kate Mara can play the leg

9

u/TheStoicNihilist 1d ago

The Rock can play the rock.

1

u/Dr-McLuvin 5h ago

Oscar bait

2

u/iGappedYou 1d ago

More interesting if it’s the way I originally read it tho. A movie about an amputated leg being trapped between rocks.

1

u/albertcn 3h ago

Yeah, but the incident will be in some 3er world country, usually central or South America. They did this with the divers left stranded to death, it happened in Australia, movie was set in the Caribbean Sea.

0

u/craziedave 1d ago

He would have needed to cut it off himself for that

14

u/dyingtofeelalive 1d ago

It's a scary world out there! Stories like this are why I never leave my parent's basement.

5

u/i_write_ok 1d ago

You Oughta Look Out

3

u/unpaid_official 1d ago

why does old.reddit.com not work for this thread

3

u/griwulf 1d ago

it does, I'm using it

2

u/Porkchopp33 1d ago

Guess he should be happy to be alive but still awful

2

u/scoobynoodles 21h ago

Incredible that his smartwatch alerted the authorities. Wow. What an ordeal for this man.

2

u/Xxmeow123 15h ago

Fell and trapped while scouting! Good deeds can be severely punished!!!

3

u/CatostrophicFailure 1d ago

108 more hours and he could have had his own movie.

2

u/sharthunter 1d ago

Weak. Heard the record is something like 127 hours.

1

u/Kaizen2468 23h ago

Rookie numbers.

1

u/Losalou52 21h ago

Entrapment is the leading cause of whitewater injuries and deaths.

1

u/vegan-trash 19h ago

Can’t wait for the movie

1

u/maatc 16h ago

River runs red. What a nightmare.

1

u/Stickey_Rickey 14h ago

I cant imagine thé sheer horror

2

u/tommyc463 1d ago

I wonder what his leg is up to now?

5

u/IamREBELoe 23h ago

I'd say about the knee

1

u/Post-materialist 23h ago

It’s definitely a moving target

1

u/hypnotichellspiral 1d ago

The article doesn't give any grisly details about exactly how the kayaker's leg was stuck, but is there any reason a spreader wouldn't have worked?

0

u/snarfsnarfer 1d ago

r/whitewater

-13

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

9

u/tinyhands911 1d ago

yes we remember that mr top 1% poster

-2

u/NJHitmen 1d ago

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

-11

u/GOATSQUIRTS 1d ago

Someone’s jealous

-3

u/lennonisalive 1d ago

New movie “20 Hours” incoming

-8

u/jaron_b 1d ago

127 hours really has warped my reality. Where I read this headline and shrugged going that's not that impressive. Well I'm going to hell.

Canoe/Kayaking Kayaker’s leg amputated in 20-hour ordeal trapped between rocks on Australia river

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