Aventuras Panama Reports Successful Evacuation Rescue on Chagres River due to SPOT Satellite Messenger

Assistant Editor’s Note: We occasionally receive reports from the field from ATTA Member tour operators. This first-hand account from Aventuras Panama came to us less than a month after the incident occurred, and is re-published from their blog.

Written by Javier Romero

I had always wanted to include a expedition style trips following the Chagres river from source to sea within our journeys. If there is a river that can provide tales about the country, it is the Chagres River. On it, you will find most of the flora, fauna, history, and the wonders of the Panama Canal, indigenous culture and of course adventure.

I was contacted by the Department of Leadership of the University of Monterrey Mexico. They were searching for a one of a kind trip in which team building would be stressed. I immediately suggested the Chagres source to sea expedition trip. We joined teams in making this trip a reality starting on Dec 12, 2011 13 students would take on the challenge.

It was an 8-9 days journey that had to be aborted on the 3rd day…

It was Wednesday Dec 14, 2012 at 4:30pm when Aventuras Panama personnel started to receive on their cellular phones the prerecorded text message “Life in danger… immediate evacuation requested… please inform operations”. The message was sent by a guide in the field using a SPOT satellite messenger recently acquired for this trip and previously tested on other Chagres day trips. So I knew there was no mistake. All the company was put in alert.

I called our helicopter provider and ask them to have a chopper ready to take-off in the next 15 minutes with a flight plan to reach the received coordinates on the rescue text message. I was in the air 15 minutes after hanging up the phone at our office. The pilot, Kyle, questioned the probabilities of being able to land in the upper mountain region of Chagres National Park at that time due to visibility problems since heavy clouds were ahead. I had recently consulted the weather satellite and I was able to assure him that poor visibility was not likely to be a problem.

We flew for 20 minutes on a straight path and right when the river valley became visible we left the heavy clouds behind us. We reached the position. Just when the pilot was starting to doubt the given coordinates, I signaled him where to land… the group was at a river shore. They were expecting the chopper and had prepared an area where it was possible to land. Not an easy landing due to the narrow area in between steep river sides and high threes but that is why we work with Helipan chopper company, they know their stuff.

I found one of the girls, Goretti Hinojosa, lying in a raft, looking pale purple, with swollen lips and barely conscious. She had become trapped under water and was rescued and resuscitated via CPR administered by the guides. Using an inflatable kayak as an stretcher and with all the groups help we moved her from the raft to the chopper and assisted on putting her in the back seats with her sister, Fatima. I went back to the copilot seat and flew back to Panama City. While In the air I was communicating via instant messager with Aventuras Panama office personnel to reconfirm that the only hospital in the city with a heliport was a public one, Hospital Santo Tomas for which our arrival was already announced.

We landed at Santo Tomas heliport on top of a parking building and no one was in sight. I ran down and found someone with a walkie talkie confirming with the emergency room that we had arrived. We did not wait for a stretcher. Recruiting everyone around us, Fatima, the pilot and hospital cleaning personnel all took turns to carry Goretti from the chopper to the arriving stretcher.

Minutes later Goretti was in the hospital emergency room with a group of doctors on her. Later on, the head doctor came out to speak to us, “we are doing all we can but it does not looks well, I do can tell you that she is here alive due to the first aid care and rapid evacuation. If she would had arrive two minutes later brain damage would be certain.”

Thank God, today Goretti is out of intensive care back in Monterrey, walking, and it seems likely, that she will have her life back 100%.

How did all this happen? Goretti and Fatima were paddling a duckie in what looked to be a very easy Class III minus rapid. They were the last boat in a convoy of six to paddle in it, when they flipped approaching it with a wrong angle. While submerged Goretti’s life vest got caught in an underwater branch.

She was not visible underwater and it took three guides swims to find and grab her. The guides rescued her by tying a rope to her life vest and pulling her out from shore.

There was a sequel to this tale. The University of Monterrey Staff and the parents of the students decided to abort the expedition due to what was described as a nightmare instead of the experience we all were searching for. We ended up evacuating everyone in choppers two days later, while Goretti was still in intensive care with her future still uncertain. They were not in danger, but most of them had more than enough to continue.

I am very grateful to God, always present in our mind, for the fortunate outcome of this event. Also to Fatima and Gorettis parents, the University of Monterrey, the Mexican Embassy and everyone else involved on trusting Aventuras Panama knowledge, will and determination to execute this rescue operation.

There are many angles on this story. And I know of many active and passive participants that are writing their version of what may one day turn to be a book or a film. I just wanted to put it up to the general public and my colleagues, as the rafting industry usually does, to share experiences and learn from them.

The Chagres River All The Way Expedition still in our goals.