Rescue highlights river danger

CORNWALL — A 17-year-old girl was rescued from the Housatonic River Sunday afternoon, May 8, with what appeared to be serious injuries, including head and back trauma and a possible broken ankle but which turned out to be just bad bruises.Cornwall Rescue Chief Skip Kosciusko said she was airlifted to the St. Mary’s Hospital Level 1 Trauma Center in Waterbury. The teen was able to walk out of the hospital later that day, according to Nancy Wolf, who is head of school for the Darrow School in East Lebanon, N.Y. The young woman was one of a group of students on a canoe trip from the school. Wolf responded to questions from The Lakeville Journal in an email that praised the work of local volunteers. She said all the faculty members on the trip also have first aid and/or wilderness responder training. She credited their expertise, combined with the “speedy, quality care” provide by the local responders, with preventing what could have been a tragedy. Wolf passed along a description of the incident, provided by a chaperone. The canoeists had just passed under the Covered Bridge and were heading through a river bend a little before 2 p.m. As they negotiated some rapids, the girl fell out of a canoe and hit her head on a rock.Two chaperones in a support canoe keeping track of the students and helping them through the rapids were able to get to her quickly. One of them stabilized the girl against the canoe and brought her to a beach on the eastern shore of the Housatonic (near Trinity Conference Center). Another stabilized her neck as she was lifted out of the water. A call went in to 911. Zach Sawicki, an EMT who lives near the scene, climbed down a steep hillside to get to the injured girl and assess the situation. “It was obvious we needed to get her out of there fast, but we weren’t going to be able to do it from that side of the river,” he said shortly after the accident.The Cornwall Fire Department’s Zodiac rescue boat was launched from the opposite side and she was taken downstream to a spot where she could be brought out more easily.About two miles downstream from the incident site, the Housatonic Valley Association was setting up for its 70th anniversary picnic at Housatonic Meadows State Park. The scene changed briefly, but dramatically, as the field on the edge of Route 7 was turned into a Life Star helicopter landing zone. A short time later, the school’s bus, loaded with students and escorted by Department of Environmental Protection police, left the park at the spot where they had ended their trip.The emergency services volunteers also responded within the hour to two boaters who had capsized in Cornwall Bridge. One was hypothermic upon rescue. Both were treated at Sharon Hospital and released.