Rapid rescue

THE FORKS -- Jack MacDonald's raft was two-thirds down the Dead River on Sunday, with the worst rapids still to come, when he noticed a small group of people on shore waving.

On a Magic Falls Rafting Company trip with a group of friends, MacDonald at first thought somebody had lost a paddle.

His rafting guide, however, realized the group was signaling a much more serious problem.

Seconds later, the guide in the Magic Falls raft ahead of MacDonald's reached into the water and pulled out the body of an unconscious man, his face a dark blue color, his arms and legs limp.

"We dug in, got to the bank of the river and everything got quiet," said MacDonald.

As the rafters waited in tense silence, the two guides and the doctor huddled over the man, blowing air into his lungs and compressing his chest.

Soon, the man started to make a wheezing noise and then began breathing on his own.

Maine Warden Bill Chandler said Tuesday night that the accident victim was Vincent Kotowski, 40, of Barre, Mass., who was rafting with four other friends in a private raft -- one not affiliated with a commercial rafting company.

With some of the most dramatic rapids still ahead, on a day when the release of water into the Dead River from Flagstaff Lake was much more than usual, the group still had to get Kotowski down the river to emergency responders.

"The whole way down, they were saying the hardest water was still to come," said MacDonald.

Now the group had to navigate those rapids as quickly as possible with one of the rafts carrying the still-unconscious victim.

Another raft guide, who arrived on the scene in a third Magic Falls raft soon after Kotowski was pulled from the water, built a makeshift backboard from paddles and strapped Kotowski to it with bandages and other items, apparently from the rafts' first-aid kits, according to MacDonald.

Handpicking a crew of paddlers, the raft guide set off down the river carrying Kotowski.

MacDonald said his raft was assigned to go first and search for the smoothest water.

The guide in the boat with the injured man took care to maneuver the raft into the smoothest water.

At one point along the trip, fresh paddlers took the place of the exhausted rafters in the raft holding Kotowski.

During the last leg of the journey it began to rain, and Kotowski began to shake uncontrollably, according to MacDonald.

Again, he said, the rafts pulled over, and fleeces and other articles of clothing were wrapped around Kotowski.

Finally, the group reached the base camp, where Kotowski was loaded onto an ambulance and taken to a waiting LifeFlight helicopter.

MacDonald said he was very impressed by the rafting guides, who he called "very competent and professional."

He also said he would go rafting again, but he would make sure to wear a helmet.

Chandler, the Maine warden, said the raft Kotowski was in apparently overturned near the end of mile-long rapids.

"It was an excellent job by the people from Magic Falls who helped rescue him," said Chandler. "Their actions and quick thinking definitely helped save his life."

Chandler said he spoke to Kotowski on Monday while the Massachusetts man was recovering at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

A call to Eastern Maine Medical center for an update on Kotowski's condition was not returned by deadline.

Calls Tuesday afternoon and night to Magic Falls rafting company officials knowledgeable about the rescue were also not returned by deadline.

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