UPDATE Thursday 9:00 a.m.: A Fayetteville man is dead after emergency crews pulled the man from the White River last night.
42-year-old Tony Matthews died early this morning at Washington Regional Hospital.
Fayetteville police, firefighters, and a dive team were called out to the West Fork of the river around 3:30 p.m. to rescue him. The man reportedly fell out of a boat and was underwater for 30 minutes, before divers could pull him out.
"He wasn't breathing and pulse less when they brought him out of the water, cold to a touch, and was unresponsive," said Dave Johnson with Emergency Management.
EMS crews were able to resuscitate him on the way to the hospital, but Johnson says if it were any other time of year the outcome could have been a lot different.
"We had some conditions just right for this situation," Johnson said. " Water was cold, turned his body temperature down, made it more of a viable patient to be resuscitated."
Authorities say the victim was fishing with two other men when their small metal boat tipped over. They managed to get back in the boat, however, their gear floated away. The victim reportedly got back in the boat to retrieve their stuff and that's when the boat tipped over a second time. The water was very calm, and is only about eight feet deep, but none of the fishermen could swim and they weren't using life jackets.
42-year-old Tony Matthews died early this morning at Washington Regional Hospital.
Fayetteville police, firefighters, and a dive team were called out to the West Fork of the river around 3:30 p.m. to rescue him. The man reportedly fell out of a boat and was underwater for 30 minutes, before divers could pull him out.
"He wasn't breathing and pulse less when they brought him out of the water, cold to a touch, and was unresponsive," said Dave Johnson with Emergency Management.
EMS crews were able to resuscitate him on the way to the hospital, but Johnson says if it were any other time of year the outcome could have been a lot different.
"We had some conditions just right for this situation," Johnson said. " Water was cold, turned his body temperature down, made it more of a viable patient to be resuscitated."
Authorities say the victim was fishing with two other men when their small metal boat tipped over. They managed to get back in the boat, however, their gear floated away. The victim reportedly got back in the boat to retrieve their stuff and that's when the boat tipped over a second time. The water was very calm, and is only about eight feet deep, but none of the fishermen could swim and they weren't using life jackets.
