A woman from Portland lost her prosthetic leg in the Clackamas River.
Ariel Rigney dropped into the river at McIver State Park to celebrate her 32nd birthday with her friends.
“Every year, I like to do a birthday float,” Rigney said.
When Rigney was a teen, she lost her right leg below the knee in a car crash and since then prosthetic leg helped her to stay active.
“I can still swim, hike, bike and run,” she said.
The trouble began when Rigney had strapped her prosthetic to the float and secured it with a bungee cord.
“We just hit a big bump and the leg went pfrewwww!” said Jacob Morton, Rigney’s friend who tried to save Rigney’s leg. “It became pretty obvious pretty quickly that we didn’t have the resources to get the leg.”
Rigney was in disbelief and shocked to see that she has lost her prosthetic leg.
“I just saw it bobbing and I’m like, ‘No!’ I felt more ridiculous than anything. Like, who loses a leg, twice?” she said.
A friend suggested her to post about her lost leg on facebook and she followed the advice.
Rigney wrote on Facebook, ‘’My 3rd annual birthday river float on Saturday turned tragic about 15 minutes after hitting the river — my prosthetic leg went overboard.
Horrified, I watched helplessly as it sunk into the Clackamas River. A valiant effort was made by all with me to try and recover it, but after about 10 minutes I called off the search, knowing it was futile. The float proceeded merrily along, all of us enjoying tunes, booze, sunshine, and laughs, me knowing that while annoying, I am lucky enough to have a backup leg at home and that things (not experiences) can be replaced.
’’
‘’After fetching my backup prosthetic, I was hellbent & determined to make a brief appearance (I’m talking maybe 15 minutes) at the tail end of a tiki beach party on Saturday night. I shared my ridiculous tale of the Lost Leg to burner/pirate friends there.
Mike casually mentioned he was a member of the Oregon Scuba Club, suggested maybe they could help and offered to post on my behalf. I went on to dance the night away with friends and finish out my birthday strong, not thinking much about what would come next.
’’
The next day, Eric Gantner of Tigard went snorkeling in the Clackamas River near McIver State Park. He had not heard about Rigney’s prosthetic leg at that time.
“You find all kinds of stuff down there,” Gantner said. “It’s crazy.”
He first saw a rainbow-colored Keens sandal and realized it was part of a prosthetic leg.
“When you see that, you’re like uh, what? What is that?” Gantner said. “I go, ‘So, somebody had a really bad day.”
“I searched, ‘Lost leg Clackamas River,’ and sure enough this came up,” Gantner said. He immediately sent Rigney a message.
“He was like, ‘Hey, I was snorkeling the Clackamas, saw your post about the leg. I think I found it?” Rigney said. “I was like, that’s it!”
On the next day, they both met and Gantner gave Rigney her leg.
Rigney updated about her lost on Facebook writing, “On Sunday afternoon around 3:30 pm, I learn that the original post on OSC had some activity, with members asking for more details about the missing leg. I send a photo and description along, cautiously hopeful.“
“At 4:48 pm, barely 1 hour later, Mike gets a simple message from someone on Facebook: “I found it!” Mike connects me to my new hero via group chat (which is aptly named “found leg”, and lo and behold, a photo is sent of my wayward limb freshly rescued from the depths of the Clackamas!!! This whole time I’m alternating between yelling, repeating HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE, and generally faffing about unsure how to function because I am totally and completely FLABBERGASTED that this is really happening.
“
“My new hero and I met up later on Sunday evening for the leg exchange, story swapping, and my (woefully inadequate, but hopefully appreciated) gift of free beer as a thank you.
After happy-crying a moment, I learned that he regularly snorkels popular sections of the Clackamas River for lost treasure (and trash pickup!), and when possible, reunites over-boarded items with their owners. On Sunday, he noticed a bright rainbow Keen shoe about 8-10 feet below the surface.
When he dove down to check it out, was beyond confused & shocked when he realized what it was attached to. His words: “This is a first!”. Apparently, it had drifted about 50 yards away from the rapid. We had an absolutely delightful conversation over beers, and eventually went our separate ways.
“
“As I sit here and recount this story to you all, I still can’t stop giggling with gratitude, shock, and joy at the ridiculousness that is my life. I’m blown away that my leg has been safely returned to me, intact & undamaged… despite spending one night at the bottom of the Clackamas River… less than 24 hours after I gave it up as drowned.
My new hero saved me potentially thousands of dollars, hours of work, and the physical pain/hassle of getting a new one made. And all of this is 100% thanks to a chance encounter with Mike and friends over a 15-minute window at a random beach party who had the connections and foresight to post in a Facebook group, a sweet stranger who had the surprise snorkel discovery of his life who thought to turn to Facebook, and a whole lot of birthday miracle magic.
“
“If the last 48 hours is any indication, my 32nd year is going to be one he** adventure!“