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Officials ID man in critical condition after river rescue

Video courtesy Giant 96 News

GENEVA, Ind. (WISH) — A man remained in critical condition Tuesday at an Indianapolis hospital after being rescued Monday afternoon from a river in Shelby County.

Indiana conservation officers on Tuesday identified the man as 35-year-old Raymond Sanchez.

Sanchez’s girlfriend notified Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officers around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday that Sanchez had went out on the river earlier in the afternoon and had planned to float to Noblitt Park in Columbus. She said Sanchez was not familiar with the river and had no idea there were low head dams along his proposed route.

The Shelby County swift-water rescue team pulled Sanchez from the Flatrock River after his Bass Tracker Bantam boat went over the low head dam in the Vandalia-Geneva area about 1 p.m. Monday, witnesses told the Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officers.

Sanchez on Tuesday remained in critical condition at IU Health Methodist Hospital, a news release from the DNR said.

Shelbyville radio station’s Giant 96 News captured the rescue on video.

Geneva is about 20 miles southeast of Indianapolis.