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Officials said U.S. National Whitewater Center staff members pulled a coworker from the Catawba River on Wednesday after he nearly drowned while searching for keys that he’d dropped in the water.
On Facebook, relatives identified the man as Patrick Halstead. His uncle wrote that he remained hospitalized Thursday.
In a statement from the Whitewater Center, officials said the incident happened around 5:15 p.m. Wednesday on the Catawba River, which runs by the northwest Charlotte facility.
The employee was finishing his workday when he dropped his keys into the river near a dock, the statement said, and he got into the water to look for the keys. The water in the area is about 4 feet deep and was calm with no current.
Another staff member who was on the dock said the man swam down several times but then didn’t come back up, officials said. That staff member began searching for the man and was soon joined by several other staff members who came to help.
“The male staff member was found floating unconscious and was pulled by two staff members to the dock where they began CPR,” according to the Whitewater Center.
Paramedics described his injuries as life threatening and airlifted him from the Whitewater Center to an area hospital. Officials said he was being treated Thursday at Carolinas Medical Center.
Friends have been posting thoughts and prayers for Halstead’s family on a Facebook page called “Praying for Patrick.”
His uncle wrote Thursday that doctors had cooled Halstead’s body temperature and planned to gradually increase his temperature to evaluate his condition.
