A man pulled Monday afternoon from the bottom of the Sandy River has died.

The 25-year-old was found down river from Glenn Otto Community Park, near the Sandy River Bridge, said Rob McDonald, operations manager at emergency responder AMR.

AMR lifeguards began searching for the man, who had not been wearing a life jacket, late Monday afternoon.

Gresham Fire, Corbett Fire and the Multnomah County Sheriff's office assisted AMR with the rescue.

The man was taken by ambulance to Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center where he died Monday night, despite the rescue team regaining a pulse on the way to the hospital, said Scott Lewis, Division Chief for Gresham Fire.

Lewis said he suspects the man, who had been swimming in cargo shorts, likely stepped into a deeper section of the river and got pulled under.

McDonald said three of the four rescue swimmers at the river had been on duty and one had just completed training.

"Finding a needle in a haystack is not an understatement with something like that," McDonald said, adding the dive team used snorkel-based diving to find the man despite murky water and his location about 30 yards outside the designated swimming area.

McDonald said all four divers had just completed training for the same rescue situation Monday morning.

He didn't know how long the man was missing, but speculated he was underwater for as long as 10 minutes. Lewis estimated he could have been underwater for as long as 23 minutes.

Rescues of similar magnitudes don't often happen, McDonald said, attributing this in part to the free lifejackets available at Glenn Otto Community Park

He stressed the importance of wearing a life jacket when in the Sandy River, despite swimming ability, as the water is fairly cold and still flowing swiftly this time of year because of mountain runoff.

--Anna Spoerre