Authorities this morning rescued a man weighing 500 pounds who had been stuck on the St. Croix River for more than 12
hours after suffering a medical emergency, a dispatcher with the Pine County, Minn., sheriff's office said.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts to rescue the man from shallow and rock-filled water, rescue workers strapped
canoes together and floated the man to safety just before 9 a.m. today, said Burnett, Wis., County Sheriff Dean Roland,
whose department assisted in the rescue.
The man, whose name has not been released, was taken by ambulance to Burnett Medical Center in Grantsburg, Wis.,
Roland said.
The man, believed to be 39, had been tubing with a group of people Monday evening when one of the tubes deflated.
The group was in an area about 2½ miles south of Fox Landing, Wis. when the man started having chest pains and
phoned Pine County Sheriff's Office for help. Pine County authorities asked Burnett County officials to help find him,
Roland said.
The Grantsburg Fire Department, the Wisconsin DNR, the Pine County, Minn., Fire Department, the Pine County Sheriff,
and the Minnesota State Police helicopter were called in to search for the man.
They found him about 9:30 p.m.
Rescue workers reached the man by boat, but faced some challenges, he said.
"He's a man of large stature and is in a location where the water is shallow," Roland said. "There are lots of rocks and the
sides are steep."
Rescue crews helped the man into a boat, but the boat ran aground, Roland said.
By 5 a.m. today, a hovercraft was sent to the scene, but the attempt failed. They also tried an amphibious vehicle, Roland
said.
By 7 a.m., rescue crews were trying to get to the man with ATVs.
More than 50 emergency personnel were on the scene.
