Chicago mother, 34, faces have BOTH her legs amputated after her feet were severed by yacht
A Chicago mother of two is scheduled to have both of her legs amputated after she was sucked underneath a 37-foot yacht, and her feet were severed by the boat’s propellers.
Lana Batochir, 34, and her husband were reuniting with their friends at a popular boating section of Lake Michigan Saturday afternoon when the eight-person inflatable raft they were on got sucked underneath a reversing yacht.
Authorities say the captain of the boat was trying to anchor down when the crane malfunctioned, according to CBS Chicago.
He then started using evasive maneuvers to correct the problem, the Chicago Tribune reports, and when he tried to reverse the yacht, known as La AquaVida, it backed over Batochir’s raft.
Another woman on the raft, who has not been named, suffered lacerations to her hands.
Both she and Batochir were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the aftermath, where Batochir is scheduled to undergo amputations to both of her legs and get prosthetics.
She has since set up a GoFundMe to help her pay for her medical expenses as well as the rehabilitation she will need following the surgery as she is an immigrant from Mongolia and does not have medical insurance in the United States.
Lana Batochir, 34, faces having both of her legs amputated after the raft she was on Saturday was sucked underneath a 37-foot yacht and the propellers severed her legs
The Chicago mother of two, left, and her husband were meeting up with friends at a popular boating area on Lake Michigan when the tragedy occurred. She wrote in a GoFundMe for her medical expenses that her husband saved her life
In the online fundraiser, Batochir, described the horrific moment she was sucked underneath La AquaVida.
She said she was on the eight-person raft connected to a boat Saturday afternoon when ‘a reckless boat driver reversed into our inflatable raft at full throttle, destroying everything in its way.
‘Everything happened so fast,’ she wrote. ‘We were all under his boat within seconds.
‘The boat’s propeller struck me, leaving me with unimaginable pain. I thought I was dying.
‘I fought for my life for seconds, which felt like minutes,’ she recounted, and ‘as soon as I had my head above water, at a distance, I saw my husband’s eyes searching for me in panic.
‘I would never forget his look of pain,’ Batochir continued. ‘We connected eyes, but I couldn’t stay up. I truly began to drown. I felt myself drifting down like an object, I knew I would die.’
Fortunately, though, she said her husband came to her rescue, pulling her out of the water to keep her from drowning.
At that point, Chicago Police Marine Unit Officers Art Pachnik and Raul Echevarria boated over to the scene, where they saw one victim hanging halfway onto the ship, with ‘excessive bleeding’ and Batochir at the ship’s stern.
She was unconscious at the time, CBS reports, and the officers at the scene had to throw her over their shoulders to get her into their boat and deliver her to paramedics.
They applied tourniquets to both the victims as they piloted them to Navy Pier.
Soon, Batochir wrote in her GoFundMe, she regained consciousness, at which point she ‘realized that both my legs were gone.’
‘It still feels like a nightmare,’ Batochir wrote.
‘Anyone who knows me knows that I love to dance, love music and enjoying life itself with family. My life has completely changed because of one unfortunate tragedy.’
The GoFundMe has now raised nearly $62,000 for her medical expenses.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the United States Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit Chicago Investigating Office and Criminal Investigative Service are now probing the incident
Authorities say the incident occurred in an area of the lake known as the Playpen, where boaters like to drink and use drugs
Authorities say they do not believe the pilot of the yacht was under the influence at the time, but he now faces having his license suspended
The incident on Saturday occurred at a popular boating area in Chicago known as the Playpen, where boaters can tie their ships together to create large flotillas as they all drink.
‘It’s a social experience where boaters like to meet other boaters, and parties like to meet other partygoers,’ Alderman Brian Hopkins II told the Tribune, ‘that’s really the attraction of the Playpen.’
He explained that boaters enjoy the area because of the dampening effect the break walls have on the waves, which makes the water calmer.
But, he said, with all the partying, especially on the weekends over the summer, ‘unfortunate accidents and incidents’ happen ‘much more frequently than we would like to see’ due to the excessive drinking, recreational drug use and overcrowding as the area does not have a maximum capacity.
‘Done responsibly, it can be fun,’ Hopkins said. ‘But again, there’s too many people who don’t have safe operating credentials.’
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the United States Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Unit Chicago Investigating Office and Criminal Investigative Service are now probing the incident.
They say they believe it was an accident, and the captain was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time.
Still, the Coast Guard has asked any passengers aboard La AquaVida to come forward and share what they saw.
Officials will begin questioning the witnesses on Wednesday, and if they find the captain of La AquaVida was negligent in the incident, he could lose his license.
Meanwhile, no charges have been brought against the captain, who has not been named.
