msmrx57
06-07-2010, 04:44 PM
So had a lot of things going on this weekend, wife stayed at a friends Friday night then we had a parade on Saturday followed by camping Saturday night with some friends. Well the weather was good until we were leaving for camping it got cold and rainy, oh well there's a shelter between the campites so no biggy. The rest of out group camped Friday night as well so they we're already set up and had a good fire going when we got there. One of the guys in the group had his ski boat with. Started to talk about getting supper going when ther was a break in the rain and someone says "I wonder how much water is in the boat?" A couple of the guys go down to the beach to check, and after a couple of minutes we hear the boat fire up, everybody but the owner came back up to the shelter cuz it was raining again. I'm asuming he was just going to run the bot a bit to get the water back to the pump and empty the water out. This is on the main channel of the Mississippi. Nobody saw exactly what happened, but I heard the boat take off then after maybe a minute I hear the engine scream as the prop came out of the water turned and saw the boat flying sideways land, throw the driver out and start circling. Seemed like for ever before he came back up but fortunately he did, unfortunately he's now in the water 200 yards from shore with no boat don't know how bad he's hurt and we don't have another boat. I grew up boating and camping on this stretch of the river so just knowing he's in the water I know he's in trouble. We run down to the beach and start checking other boats for keys to go help, no luck people had been leaving because the crappy weather. Guy is swimming towards shore but the current here is BAD, luckily some people camping on an island on the otherside heard it and hopped in their boat and headed for the other boat, we finally got their attention and pointed to where he was. They got to him just as he was about out of strength, but he was still too far out to swim out to him. When they get him to shore it's obvious he got hit by the motor as well as the boat. Had a 5" gash on the back of his head, left side of his back was ripped open and he was complaining his left leg hurt like hell. Didn't know what happened or remember what he was doing, but he was concious and coherent. Ambulance took him to the hospital, still in ICU today because they're keeping him sedated. He has a skull fracture they took him into surgery to clean his back and close his wounds 100+ stitches and possibly a broken leg. In stable condition but tore up pretty bad. His parents came to the campground with his wife after they had him stablized to pack their stuff up, and when we got the boat on the trailer his shirt was still wrapped around the prop. He is SO lucky, he wasn't wearing a life vest got hit by the boat cut by the prop was by himself and lived. And no he wasn't drinking. I've never felt so damn helpless standing on the shore knowing that without a boat I can't do anything to help him. Just kept praying that he could keep swimming long enough to get close enough to shore so we could get to him. Kinda took the fun out of the rest of the weekend for some reason.