Emergency crews were dispatched at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday to the Miami trailhead at the Great Miami River Trail and pulled the unidentified man out of the rushing water. Paramedics performed CPR on him until CareFlight landed on Verity Parkway. He was flown by medical helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.
The man’s name has not been released.
Lt. Jamison Verdin from the Middletown Division of Fire said the man probably rented a kayak from a company north of Middletown and kayaked down the river. While waiting to get picked up by the kayak business, the man got into the river without a life jacket, Verdin said.
He was pulled out of the water several hundred feet downstream, then carried back to the park through the woods, Verdin said. Traffic on Verity Parkway was shut down while CareFlight landed on the road.
No one should enter a body of water without wearing a life jacket, Verdin said. He called the current in that section of the river “very fast and deceiving.”
While waiting for the helicopter to land, Verdin said he saw four cars pass with kayaks attached to their roofs. He said people need to be educated about water safety before getting into the river.
This water rescue came nearly a week after a man died swimming in the river.
Fritznel Antoine Dean, 27, of Middletown, died after entering the river to swim, officials said. The Butler County Coroner’s Office ruled his cause of death as an accidental drowning.
Boats were launched into the water at about 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 11 in the area around the north part of Verity Parkway and Access 2, according to the Middletown Division of Police, following a report of a man who was swimming across the river and went underwater but never resurfaced.
The man’s body was discovered at about 9:30 p.m., according to a city spokesperson.
Verdin, a 20-year veteran, said the fire department typically receives about three calls a year for a water rescue. He said the department has responded to seven or eight calls the last three months.
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