A swimmer in the US, trapped in a cold, fast-flowing river, was rescued last week by the police, who responded to an SOS call she made using her Apple Watch.
Apple allows users to make calls from watches with side buttons. Users have to press and hold them till three sliders appear. One of them is for contacting emergency services. After the call is over, watches send users’ location to their emergency contacts.
In this case, the swimmer’s foot was stuck in the rocks at the bottom of the Columbia River in The Dalles city in Oregon. She was in the river for 30 minutes and was showing signs of hypothermia when responders arrived.
First, fire officials tried to give her a ladder and move the rocks that were trapping her. When their attempt failed, a police officer decided to jump into the water to rescue her.
“Officer Reams assessed the scene and determined that the rescue of the swimmer needed to be immediate, and that he would be able to aid in the rescue only by entering the water to feel how the entrapment was occurring, since the water was too murky and fast to allow any visible inspection from above,” the police department of Dalles city said in a Facebook post.
The officer managed to free the swimmer’s foot and take her to the shore.
The Dalles city police advised swimmers not to venture into water bodies alone. “Local waterways are cold and the rivers continue to fun fast,” they added.
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