James Walsh, a 73-year-old Birmingham, Alabama, attorney, has a few good Samaritans he needs to thank for saving his life.
Walsh recently sent a letter to the editor thanking everyone who helped him during a scary episode on the Hiwassee River last spring. We telephoned him to get the full story.
A Vietnam combat veteran originally from Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, Walsh was rafting on the Hiwassee on June 14 with his 10-year-old grandson Rainier and a group of adult friends when the experience went terribly awry.
Walsh said he was steering a raft with six people aboard around a bend in the river when the back of the boat got stuck on a rock. While attempting to push the raft free, Walsh said, he instantly began to feel himself losing consciousness.
“I was out cold – in mortal danger,” he recalled.