Picture this: a man trapped, half-submerged in frigid, flowing river water for nearly a day, his life slowly fading away as hypothermia took its toll.

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All efforts to extract 66-year-old Lithuanian adventurer Valdas Bieliauskas had failed after his leg became trapped in a rock crevice while rafting on the Franklin River in Tasmania last November.

Lithuanian Valdas Bieliauskas was part of a whitewater rafting group that was intent on overcoming challenging rivers throughout the world. Inset: Dr Jorian Kippax. Pictures by Tasmania Police, Ben Seeder

Dr Jorian Kippax was the Tasmanian

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