Two Clark County residents helped rescue a 5-year-old boy who had slipped off his inner tube Thursday in the Cowlitz River just downstream from Castle Rock, according to the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office.
Scott Van House of Vancouver and Kelli Howes of Washougal pulled the boy out of the river about a half-mile downstream from where he’d slipped off the tube, brought him to a sandbar and started CPR, a bulletin from the sheriff’s office said.
Cowlitz Sheriff Detective Robert Stumph waded out to the sandbar and took over chest compression from Van House while Howes continued breaths. A rescue diver, Zack Eatherton, reached the three and carried the boy back to the bank where CPR was resumed. Life Flight Helicopter arrived and transported the boy to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, the bulletin said.
Eatherton also rescued an 11-year-old girl who had been playing on the inner tube with the boy when he slipped off the tube. She was rescued from a stump in the river and is expected to recover completely from possible hypothermia, the bulletin said.
The boy was reported in critical condition later Thursday.
