Date:  08/24/18

Rescued Female:  Nancy Stevens, 57, Bend, OR

Deceased Male:  Ronald Stevens, 84, Jackson, WY

Date:  08/23/18

By:  Lt. Bryan Husband, Search and Rescue Coordinator

On 08/23/18, at approximately 3:15pm, 9-1-1 Dispatch received a call from a subject fly fishing near Dillon Falls day use area, who had observed two subjects in a canoe get swept downstream towards the falls.  The two subjects were described as an elderly male and adult female, who were both wearing life jackets.  They were later confirmed to be father and daughter.  At some point, their canoe tipped over and they were unable to swim to shore before being swept over Dillon Falls.

15 Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Volunteers, four DCSO Deputies, Bend Fire Department personnel and US Forest Service law enforcement officers responded to the area of Dillon Falls and Aspen Camp.  Rescue personnel began arriving on scene at approximately 3:29pm.

Additional subjects recreating on the river trail observed the two subjects floating downstream from the falls and directed nearby kayakers to their location.  The kayakers contacted the elderly male first who was unconscious, assisting him to the trail embankment.  Subjects who had been recreating on the trail immediately began CPR efforts.  The kayakers then paddled across the river to the female’s location and assisted her back to the trail with the others.

At approximately 3:45pm Bend Fire and DCSO personnel located the subjects on the shore near the river trail and took over CPR efforts on the elderly male.  DCSO SAR Volunteers, utilizing an inflatable boat with motor, traveled upstream from Aspen Camp and joined the subjects where rescue efforts were still taking place.  DCSO SAR Volunteers transported the adult female, who had sustained non life threatening injuries, back to Aspen Camp in their boat, where additional Bend Fire personnel took over care.  Bend Fire personnel then transported the female via ambulance to St. Charles Hospital in Bend for further evaluation.

Resuscitation efforts for the elderly male were ultimately unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at that location.   The adult female resides here in Bend and was being visited by her father, who lived out of town.