ST. LOUIS -- Escorted tour participants learn quickly that the tour
director is the one who makes it all work, who covers every
contingency, insulates the guests from all the travel logistics and
acts as the hand-holder who tends to every personal need.
It's a nearly superhuman requirement. But a recent incident
involving an Intrav tour director pushed the role of job to new
heights.
Ken Keusenkothen, a 26-year-old travel director for the St.
Louis-based luxury tour operator Intrav, became a hero when he
saved three men from drowning in the Caledonian Canal in Inverness,
Scotland, after their Ford Escort jumped a retaining wall and
plunged into the water.
Visiting Scotland as the leader of an Intrav luxury barge
program through the waterways of the Scottish Glens, St. Louis
native Keusenkothen was walking near the canal when he heard the
splash.
Three local residents were in the car when it hit the water,
Alan Thompson, 30, Michael Robertson, 29, and Steven Bown, 19.
One had escaped from the car, reached the surface and called for
help when Keusenkothen arrived at the far side of the canal.
Keusenkothen swam the 100 feet across the canal and pulled the
first victim, who could not swim, to safety. The man said there
were others in the car, so Keusenkothen dived back down about 15
feet and pulled the second man from the car.
He then realized there was a third man trapped in the rear of
the car unconscious, so he went down again. When he reached the car
for the third victim, the car door had closed and the handle would
not open it.
"I pulled on the handle and nothing happened," he said. "I got
more leverage with my foot on the side, then it came open."
Keusenkothen said he dove down at least 10 times before he
managed to get all three victims to safety. Local police performed
CPR on one of the men, who was unconscious, until paramedics
arrived. All three victims survived.
Keusenkothen said he learned rescue skills in various
situations, including his training as a whitewater kayaking
instructor in a student-run adventure program, training as a raft
guide and a two-day American Red Cross first aid course he took as
part of his training for Intrav.
After the BBC and other international media made Keusenkothen a
hero, he said he had mixed emotions. "I was getting a lot of
attention. I wasn't sure how to respond. I'm just glad everyone is
all right."