SANDY RIVER PLANTATION – A 3-year-old Connecticut boy was rescued after he went over two waterfalls while with his family Tuesday afternoon at Smalls Falls, about 3 miles north of Phillips on Route 4.
People at the scene said they heard a woman screaming, “The baby is in the water.”
The boy had gone over the falls from an upper pool of water and then down to a second pool, said Kirk Steigler of Attleboro, Mass. The accident happened around 2:20 p.m., officials said.
The boy was in critical condition at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor late Tuesday night, according to Mark Latti, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The boy’s name was not available.
The boy’s father, Tyler Bailey, jumped in and reached the boy first.
Initially the boy was under the water and nobody could find him, Steigler said. When the boy was brought to shore, he was not breathing, according to Warden Patrick Egan.
Rescuers from Rangeley Fire Department, NorthStar Emergency Medical Service and North Franklin Search and Rescue Team, among others, including civilians, firefighters and Egan, jumped into the water to help or were on shore helping to rig ropes to pull the boy to safety. The team handed the boy over the rocks in a rescue basket.
Two counselors from Camp Winnebago in Fayette, Tyler Warmack, 22, and Shavoyae Brown, 19, were able to get to the father and son to start cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Warmack told rescuers that Bailey had the child in his arms when he reached the pair. He said he asked the father if they could place the child on a rock to start CPR, and he and others performed five to seven rounds of resuscitation before the boy started coughing.
The child was still at first, Steigler said, but after the CPR, he started moving.
People around the site tried to call for rescue but there wasn’t any cellular phone service in the area, Steigler said. Some people went out and started flagging down motorists while others drove to the nearest house to call for help.
People were able to flag down a passing ambulance, he said.
The child was taken by NorthStar ambulance to an airport in Phillips, where a helicopter airlifted him to the Bangor hospital.
Bailey reached over and hugged his companion, Julia James, who was visiting with two other children. They answered Warden Brock Clukey’s questions before the couple drove to the hospital.
Before he left, Bailey shook hands with Warmack and thanked him, Brown and other rescuers for their help.
“Without you guys, it could have been a lot worse,” Egan told Warmack, Brown and others.
Warmack and Brown were returning with a group of campers from an overnight at Tumbledown Mountain in Weld, Camp Winnebago Camp Director Andy Lilienthal said Tuesday night. He said he had received several calls lauding the rescue efforts of the two counselors.
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