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An Air Life of Oregon Publication
Vol. 18, Number
en and Colby Knifong
have lived every parent's
worst nightmare. They
know the terrifying chill of
plunging through icy water,
bruised and bloody, screaming
their child’s name. They know
the horror of seeing their son’s
lifeless body pulled from
beneath a sunken log. They
know the wave of nausea that
hits when they recognize the
fear shimmering in the eyes of
every paramedic, police officer,
nurse and doctor— the fear
that there’s no way this child
could survive.
K
GOING UNDER
A toddler submerged for twenty minutes in an icy current.
A desperate family praying for a miracle.
A whole community fighting against hopeless odds.
What will it take to save Kennisen Knifong?
directed his deputy to take Colby
inside to search the house in case
Kennisen was merely hiding. He had
been missing for nearly 20 minutes.
Struggling to stay calm, Steve ran
toward the creek and looked down
stream. Something pulled his gaze to
a spot nearly 350 yards from where
the dog still sat guarding the point
of entry. It was something shiny,
something that looked like a fishing
lure. Steve ran toward it, fear grip
ping at him as he realized he was
seeing was three small buttons on
the front of Kennisen’s sweatshirt.
It’s an image that still bum s in the
back of his mind.
“He was underwater with his arms
floating out like kelp and his eyes
fixed and dilated,” he said.
It was a sunny morning last
June, and Colby Knifong was
outside the family’s Enterprise
home with her 17-month-old
son, Kennisen.
Steve grabbed Kennisen and pulled
him from the surging creek. He
pressed his back to expel any water
from the small body. As he prepared
to start CPR, Steve looked up to see
nearly two-dozen people converging
on the scene. From neighbors to
paramedics, family to police officers,
the Knifongs' house was suddenly a
whirl of activity.
“I bent down to pull a weed,”
she recalls. “I turned my back
on him for just a second.”
But a second was all it took. In
that instant, Kennisen scram
bled down a 20-foot bank,
under a fence, and into the
frigid creek. When Colby
turned around, she felt her
blood turn to ice. The family
dog sat motionless beside a
small, muddy footprint in the
creek bank.
Ken stood numbly on the sidelines as
people took turns performing CPR
on his son. “At that point. I didn't
think we were going to make it out
of town,” he said. “It was the most
blue, lifeless body I’d ever seen.”
Colby hurtled over the fence
and down the steep embank
ment, charging into icy water
that surged around her knees.
“These logs kept cutting my
legs, but I didn't even notice
then,” she said.
Screaming Kennisen’s name,
she fought her way down
stream as the current pulled at
her clothes and slammed her
into logs. Seconds passed, with
still no sign of her son.
Spring 2004
Kennisen wasn’t breathing. He had
no pulse, and his body was cold and
unmoving. As Steve Rogers
performed CPR, he tried to squelch
the feeling of hopelessness that
gripped him. “This kid couldn’t have
been any deader. He was as blue as
his little sweatshirt.”
Back at Wallowa Memorial Hospital,
Head Nurse Gail
Colby, Kennisen and Ken Knifong gaze out over the creek that nearly claimed Kennisen's Johnson, RN, and
Tami Perren, RN, were
life less than a year ago.
huddled around the
blaring, he passed the familiar truck of an
nurse’s station listening to
“I ran back to the house and
electrician. It was Kennisen’s father, Ken
the dispatch call for the hos
called 911,” she said. “Then I ran back out
TO OUR
PARTNERS
Knifong,
on
his
way
to
a
job.
pital’s
ambulance.
When
to keep searching."
Lowell Euhus. MD, walked
“You just get a feeling in a small town,”
Steve Rogers, undersheriff with the
by, Gail asked if he'd go to
Ken recalls. “When I saw them turn like
Wallowa County Sheriffs office, was at his
the Knifongs’ house.
they might be headed to our house, I just
desk when Colby's frantic call came in.
WALLOW* COUNTY
knew something had happened to
“I don’t usually go to the
With more than 35 years of search and
AMBULANCE SERVICE
Kennisen.”
rescue experience under his belt, Steve
knew he had to act fast. As he raced
Continued on page 4
Steve arrived ahead o f Ken and quickly
toward the Knifong residence with sirens
tK K K ÊH ÊÊ ÊÊ ÊÊ Ê IÊ IK Ê IÊ K Ê ÊÊ Ê ÊÊ ÊÊ Ê ÊK ÊM
Air Life of Oregon
•
St. Charles Medical Center
2500 NE Neff Rd.
Bend, Oregon 97701
Photo by Gary Reiche