Kea Rodrigues, a 14-year-old boy who was pulled from ice-cold, churning whitewater in a harrowing rescue below Dougan Falls on the upper Washougal River on July 9, is “alert, talking and breathing on his own” at Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Medical Center Children’s Hospital, hospital officials said Wednesday.
A large number of swimmers and public officials took part in the rescue after Kea’s leg became trapped between boulders in heavy current in a frothing pool under a six-foot waterfall. Civilian swimmers and a scuba diver with the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office struggled to keep Kea’s head above water for an extended period of time, until a rope was attached to his body and he was pulled unresponsive from the river.
Paramedics, waiting just feet away on the river bank, immediately began CPR and other lifesaving procedures on the unconscious boy, whose body had turned blue according to several witnesses. He was listed in critical condition but later improved.
Kea suffered cardiac arrest in the near-drowning, hospital officials said Wednesday. But paramedics kept him alive while preparing him for a Life Flight helicopter that flew him to a hospital, officials said.
