RedactedNarrative: On 5/19/2019, two people put their canoe on the water at or near the north fork bridge (35.7379, -81.9856) just north of burnets landing. They paddled past burnets landing heading toward the mouth of the catawba river. As the approached the bank at the mouth of the catawba river where they were going to be fishing for the day, subject1 was in the process of getting out of the canoe when the incident occurred.  While in the process of getting out of the canoe, she had one leg hanging over the side of the canoe with the other leg on the inside of the canoe.  The canoe started to drift away from the bank while she was trying to exit the canoe causing her to lose her footing and fall.  In the process of falling subject1 suffered a large laceration on her left leg.  
  
  The laceration extended from her upper thigh to just above left knee. The injury took place at (35.7231, -81.9879). Subject2 used his shirt to apply pressure to the wound and called 911. When i arrived at burnets landing, mcdowell county rescue squad was already on scene and was in the process of transporting subject1 from the location of the incident to burnets landing where the ems was standing by.  Once the rescue squad arrived at burnets landing, they loaded subject1 into the awaiting ems and transported her to mcdowell county hospital.  Once she arrived at the hospital, she received staples and stitches in her outer left thigh to treat the injury that she sustained . She was later released from the hospital. 
  
  Contributing factor leading to the incident is the lack of being properly anchored or tied a-fast to the shore before trying to exit the canoe. 
  
  There was only one type iii pfd on board when the incident took place.  Only after subject1 fell overboard did she put the pfd on.  One warning citation was issued to the operator subject2 for not having the proper number of pfds on board
  
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