Centralia resident Rick Stumm, 67, remains in a Vancouver hospital following a boat collision that nearly took his life on Aug 22.
Stumm and two friends, local residents Randy LeDuc, the boat’s owner, and Dan Fetch, were trolling for fish in the Columbia River when they were struck by another boat carrying four people in what the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office determined was an “offset head-on collision.”
The violent collision forced Fetch from LeDuc’s 20-foot fishing boat into the water, where he struggled to escape until help arrived from another passing boat. According to the sheriff’s office, Fetch was not wearing a life jacket at the time.
Stumm, meanwhile, was struck by the oncoming boat. He was ultimately lifeflighted to a trauma unit at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver.
Stumm’s sister, Eileen Weyrauch, says it’s a miracle Stumm is alive.
“That boat hit them at what would be like 10 o'clock on a clock, flew up over the boat, crashed down onto their boat at about four o’clock and then (landed) back into the water and kept going to the other side of the river,” Weyrauch said.
Weyrauch described the three friends as slowly trolling for fish at a speed of about one mile per hour when the other boat hit them at “full power with a full-size motor going.” She said the suggestion that the two boats somehow ran into each other couldn’t be further from the truth, adding that the men had even yelled to try to get the attention of those in the oncoming boat.
“But it was coming so fast that all they had time to do was holler once, which alerted my brother,” Weyrauch said. “He kind of started turning to them to see what was going on, and all he saw was the bottom of a boat, and what he remembers after that is basically getting staples in his head, which would’ve been hours later.”
According to Weyrauch, a third boat stopped at LeDuc’s boat shortly after the collision. One of its occupants happened to be a trauma doctor who provided immediate aid to Stumm. Others helped retrieve Fetch from the water. Fetch suffered a concussion from the collision.
Stumm and Fetch were first transported to PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview.
According to Weyrauch, Stumm’s injuries included internal bleeding that had to be stabilized before he could be lifeflighted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in Vancouver.
Stumm remains in the Vancouver hospital, though he is now out of the ICU. Weyrauch said she and their mother have been visiting Stumm about every other day. Stumm’s wife, Phyllis, has been staying in a hotel near the hospital in order to provide daily support.
“He had a fractured skull, a broken nose,” Weyrauch said. “His right clavicle is the last thing they just did surgery on Saturday morning, (Aug. 30). It was busted in five places, so they went in and put that back together with plates. And a few days before that, he had seven broken ribs, but three of them were busted in multiple places.”
Weyrauch said the surgery to Stumm’s ribs has allowed him to breathe, though another surgery was required to install a tube that could drain fluid from his lungs. Stumm also suffered a punctured lung, along with a laceration to his kidney. He’s taking medicine to help manage clots.
“His core was basically smashed between the boat that was doing a flyover and the seat; it just crushed him in between the two,” Weyrauch said.
What added to her frustration, Weyrauch said, is that the colliding boat apparently kept going after the collision, first traveling to the other side of the river, then parking along the shore for a period of time, before finally showing up to the docks where the other two boats had parked.
Weyrauch, who serves as a fire commissioner in Spokane, questioned the decisions made by the occupants of that boat both before and after the collision.
“When (Stumm and his friends) looked at that boat, they couldn’t even see anybody in the boat, all they could see was the bow, but the bow hit them and then they literally flew over (LeDuc’s) boat and kept going,” Weyrauch said.
She wonders why the accident wasn’t considered a hit-and-run by the sheriff’s office.
“If I was driving my own boat, even if I bump the dock of another boat with my boat, it’s my responsibility to let those people know if I’ve just damaged their dock. You can’t just drive away and pretend it didn’t happen,” Weyrauch said.
Stumm is a longtime Centralia resident who worked for the Centralia School District and is actively involved in the community. He and Phyllis have been married for 46 years. They have two children, Carrie, who lives in Centralia, and Jason, a former local baseball standout who now resides in Tuscon, Arizona.
Both Stumm and Weyrauch grew up in Bucoda and went to school in Tenino.
Despite the seriousness of his injuries, Weyrauch commends the aid and medical care Stumm has received in the moments following the collision up to now.
“The people who have taken care of him from the time that doctor climbed into his boat (to) Longview was just incredible and the care that he's gotten now down in Vancouver is remarkable,” Weyrauch said.
“Kudos to them and the good Lord for keeping him alive, because it could’ve gone south really quickly,” she added.
