Man falls into Lebanon hotel pond, nearly succumbs to hypothermia

PORTLAND — An accidental fall into a Lebanon, Ore., hotel’s water feature Friday morning illustrates the dangers of hypothermia, officials said.

The episode began when a man and wife took a post-breakfast, pre-dawn stroll outside the Best Western Premier Boulder Falls Inn. At the hotel’s Japanese garden, the man missed a step down from a gazebo, stumbled and fell head-first into a pond and its 42-degree water, according to a Lebanon Fire District news release.

“The man quickly became incapacitated from the cold water and was unable to swim to the edge of the pond. He drifted to the center of the pond which ranges up to 5-plus feet in depth,” the release says.

The man’s wife ran to the hotel front desk where someone called 911. The hotel manager ran to the pond, entered and helped the man to a rocky outcrop. “But the victim was overcome by hypothermia and could not stand or climb up the rocky shore,” the release says.

Hypothermia can cause confusion, loss of coordination, and loss of consciousness when the core body temperature falls below 95 degrees, it says.

Lebanon firefighters arrived and called for additional help. Rescue swimmers from an engine company, clad in dry suits, helmets, and personal flotation devices, entered the water, assessed the man’s condition and determined him to be in a significant state of hypothermia, the release says. They helped him to a medic unit.

The man, believed to be in his late 40s, was in stable condition en route to Lebanon Community Hospital for evaluation and treatment of hypothermia, said Division Chief Jason Bolen.