Kayaker Dies After Being Pulled From Potomac River Near Great Falls

GREAT FALLS, VA — A kayaker who was rescued Sunday afternoon from the Potomac River died at Inova Fairfax Hospital, according to authorities.

Emergency rescue personnel from both Fairfax County and Montgomery County, Maryland responded for the report of three kayakers in distress on the Potomac River near Great Falls, according to Peter Piringer, a public information officer with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.

"About 2 o'clock we received a call from Virginia, from Fairfax, saying that there were three people in the water, three boaters, kayakers, had become separated from the boats," Piringer said. "One of them was in a medical distress."

Fairfax and Montgomery crews were able to locate the three people fairly quickly, according to Piringer. The boaters initiated a self-rescue to the Virginia shoreline, with one adult male in life-threatening condition.

"CPR was started, in fact, by crews from Fairfax County who arrived by land, and then shortly thereafter, the Montgomery County swift water boat team arrived on the scene," Piringer said.

The two people who pulled the man from the water were also involved in that effort, according to Piringer. Montgomery County swift water crews then moved the patient by boat while advanced life support continued to an EMS staging area on the Maryland shoreline. Paramedics treated the patient until he could be transported to a Inova Fairfax in Virginia, where he later died.

"We believe they were boating in and around the Great Falls and somehow got caught up in some hydraulics up in that area, the water is very low, so treacherous in some areas," Piringer said.

No information was available about the conditions of the other two kayakers or the identify of the deceased kayaker.