ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ELKHORN CITY, KY.
SOURCE: Associated Press
SUCKED INTO A WHIRLPOOL, the Florida man had given up when he couldn't hold his breath any longer.
Ken Ross had decided that Sunday would be the last time he kayaked the rapids of the Russell Fork because it was getting too easy. It nearly became the last time he rode any rapids.
The Tallahassee, Fla., man was sucked into a whirlpool at the bottom of a drop on the river, along the Kentucky-Virginia border. When he was finally pulled to shore, he had no pulse and was not breathing.
Had it not been for some rescue workers and an emergency room physician from Georgia who just happened to be on the river that day, Ross would not have made it.
``I couldn't hold my breath any longer,'' the 37-year-old carpenter said Tuesday from his bed at the Bristol, Tenn., Regional Medical Center. ``I said, `That's it. I'm going to die.' I just relaxed and went down.''
Ross was moved Tuesday from the hospital's intensive care unit. He said his lungs have continued to falter and that doctors want to observe him for several more days.
But after his ordeal, Ross doesn't mind the inconvenience.
Thousands of rafters and kayakers flock to the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River from all over the country and Canada every October, when the Corps of Engineers increases water releases through the Flannagan Dam at Haysi, Va. The river and its wild rapids have been an annual pilgrimage for Ross since 1985.
Ross was doing fine until about noon Sunday, when he entered the Triple Drop, a Class V rapid open only to the most experienced paddlers. He got through the first drop when his boat got caught in a hydraulic.
``I fought that for about five minutes,'' he said in a raspy voice, coughing frequently. ``Then I thought I needed to get out as long as I had some strength left.''
Ross got free of his kayak and did what he had done many times before: rolled into a ball, sank to the bottom and pushed off with his legs. But this time, it didn't work.
Onlookers were preparing to tie a rope to a person and make a rescue attempt when someone noticed Ross had grabbed a rope. He doesn't remember.
``They said I was holding onto the rope pretty tight when they pulled me out,'' he said.
Ross was revived on the riverbank, then airlifted by Virginia State Police helicopter. Steve Ruth of Elkhorn City said the chopper landed on a river rock about the size of a bed.
``It was amazing,'' Ruth said. ``I've never seen anything like that.''
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB