Boat driven by sister hits brother; his leg had to be amputated

Chandler Balkman didn't want to miss one moment with his camera.

Not the sunrise on Lake Sammamish. Or the intricate patterns of an iris petal.

Even as the 16-year-old lay on the floor of his Issaquah home on a warm August night, his right leg nearly severed at the hip, he told his father, "Please take pictures of this."

No one knew at that moment whether Chandler would survive. Minutes earlier, he'd been swimming with his father in Lake Sammamish when his sister, Jessica, 19, accidentally ran over him with the family boat. It was dark, she couldn't see, and the propeller sliced through his right pelvis, hitting an artery.

He was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where surgeons had to amputate his leg to save his life.

On Friday, more than two weeks after the accident, Chandler's father, older brother and a longtime neighbor spoke to reporters at Harborview about that night of Aug. 3.

They talked about Chandler's condition — he's improving and was just moved from the intensive-care unit to the acute-care unit — and they recalled how a night that started out like any other shifted their lives in unimaginable ways.

It was about 9 p.m. and Chandler and his father, Steve Balkman, wanted to cool off after Chandler's lacrosse game, so they jumped into Lake Sammamish behind their home. They swam about 200 feet. His father was doing backstrokes and Chandler was wearing fins, swimming underwater and "doing dolphin kicks," Balkman said. Neither of them heard the approaching boat.

After it passed, Chandler called out to his father that he'd been hit. Balkman swam to his son, grabbed him and began swimming furiously with his free arm, screaming for help.

Chandler's brother, Geoff Balkman, 22, heard the commotion and hurried outside. He grabbed a canoe from his family's boat shed, paddled over to his brother and father, and lifted Chandler inside. "I think that saved Chandler two to three minutes," Steve Balkman said.

The noise awoke Gary Folkman, who lives five houses down. The three spent the next 10 minutes putting pressure on Chandler's wound.

That's when Chandler began to say his goodbyes. He said he loved his family and told his brother to not give up on his dream of becoming a dentist, Folkman said.

Chandler also said to tell Jessica it was OK and that he loved her.

An avid lacrosse and tennis player, Chandler now faces the challenge of accomplishing his dreams with a prosthetic, his father said.

Chandler, who would have started his junior year at Issaquah High School, has kept up his spirits, his father said. But it will be a long road to recovery, he added.

"It's going to take him some time to understand that he can do anything he wants," his father said.

Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546 or skrishnan@seattletimes.com