Rowing champ no longer in danger after Yarkon capsize

Rowing champion Yasmin Feingold, who was pulled unconscious from the Yarkon River Monday, is no longer in danger, Ichilov Hospital officials said yesterday. However, Feingold is still in an induced coma to allow her body to recover from the ordeal.

Prof. Patrick Sorkin, chief of intensive care at Ichilov, said it was too soon to tell whether permanent damage had been done, and to what degree.

Feingold, 20, was rowing in the Yarkon river when her shell capsized, and could not free herself from the heel restraints. She was pulled from the water by a passerby, Avi Toibin, 62.

For the past three years, Feingold won the national crew championship in the women's 1,000-meter single event and the four-woman team event.

"The X-ray shows that Feingold had water in her lungs, and from the experience of the Maccabiah disaster, the materials in the Yarkon might cause severe lung damage, and she is being treated with antibiotics," said Sorkin.

The Yarkon has been severely polluted for decades, due to waste disposal and waning natural water sources. Efforts to improve water quality were launched only in recent years.

In 1997, four members of the Australian delegation to the Maccabiah Games were killed and 60 were injured when a temporary pedestrian bridge collapsed over the Yarkon and they ingested toxic chemicals in the water.

It is not known why Feingold's shell capsized. Capsizes are common, but rowers usually free themselves easily from the shell's heel restraints.