Drowning averted on Delaware River

By TOM KANE

BARRYVILLE, NY — A young man was assisted along the Pennsylvania river bank by staff from the Kittatinny Campground and a National Park Service ranger on Monday afternoon, August 22.

“He might have drowned if people on the scene hadn’t come to his aid quickly,” said ranger Cliff Daniels.

Orlando Rubio-Leon, 21, of Jupiter, FL, a student living in East Elmhurst, NY, was camping with three friends at the campground when he decided to swim across the river.

Rescuers were told that he had just eaten lunch, which included a few cans of beer.

When Rubio-Leon’s companions saw him in distress, one of them rushed to the campground office and alerted Jacalyn DelVecchio, Kittatiny base manager, who rushed to the river side, canoed to the other side and found Rubio-Leon laying exhausted in the shallow water.

“He was going in and out of consciousness when we got to him,” DelVecchio said. Daniels, who arrived in his own canoe, immediately joined her at the scene.

A physician, who was kayaking near the site and who spoke Spanish, assisted the rescuer as an interpreter.

Daniels called for the Lumberland Fire Department’s air boat, which whisked Rubio-Leon to the New York side and into an American Legion Ambulance.

He was taken to Bon Secours Hospital in Port Jervis where he was treated and released at 6:00 p.m. the same day.

“This is a warning to people who eat and drink and think they can swim in the river,” Daniels said. “Rubio-Leon said he panicked when he realized that the currents were controlling him.”