A Kayaker’s leg was amputated in the river after a 20-hour rescue

A Tasmanian tourist has had his leg amputated in the middle of a raging river after becoming trapped between rocks on a kayaking trip with friends.

Doctors say they made a “life or death” decision by talking to an international tourist during a critical rescue on the Franklin River that lasted about 20 hours.

A tourist in his 60s was partially submerged in water during this whole time of grief, and the rescuers said that it is clear that “if we had continued in the place we were, and got trapped in the crack of the rock, we would not have survived”.

Several attempts to remove him before he was amputated were unsuccessful, said police on the Australian island.

The tourist was kayaking with a group in south-west Tasmania when his leg got stuck between rocks in the rapids on Friday afternoon.

Emergency services rushed to the remote and inaccessible area after the man’s smartwatch called for help, police said.

After many unsuccessful attempts to free the man in one night and his condition was not good, it was decided to have his leg amputated so that he could be euthanized in the area and taken to the hospital by helicopter.

“This rescue was a very challenging and technical operation, and an incredible effort that took many hours to save this man’s life,” Doug Oosterloo, Tasmania Police’s acting commissioner, said in a statement.

“This was a life and death situation,” Oosterloo told Australia’s national broadcaster ABC.

The man is currently in critical condition in hospital.

Oosterloo said that although the kayaker was “well prepared”, he was not ready to spend “that valuable time in a rock crevice with that heat and the torrent of water below”.

The other 10 kayakers who were kayaking with the man were being airlifted from the area and police are planning to talk to them about how the accident happened, the Australian Associated Press reported.

Oosterloo told the news agency that the tourists had stopped kayaking and were on the beach when the man slipped.

“He was scouting the area and he slipped and fell into that rock crack,” Oosterloo said.