After a gruelling journey in the recent Yukon River Quest, Katherine Patterson had to be medevaced from Dawson City to Whitehorse within two hours of finishing the annual race.

At the start of the race on June 28, said Patterson, who works for a farm credit company in Regina, she and her crewmate, Joe O'Blenis, from Alberta, were confident they were a strong team, capable of placing in the top five.

But as the race wore on, Patterson said Wednesday in an interview at Whitehorse General Hospital, she found it more difficult to breathe and noticed her breath was synchronized with the strokes of her paddle.

'That got progressively worse,' she said from her hospital bed.

Disappointed with their performance on the first leg of the race, the team, officially entered as Kats and Dawgs, worked hard to catch up, said Patterson.

As the team neared the end of the Quest, O'Blenis requested they take a break, afraid he would fall asleep and tip the canoe.

For the approximately 90 minutes that O'Blenis slept, Patterson's condition continued to worsen. Despite the cold, she felt hot, her heart was racing and her breathing was shallow. She couldn't sleep. Anxious to finish the race, she woke her partner.

Five or six hours later, the team arrived in Dawson, but Patterson couldn't even manage the few steps to the results board.

She tried to take a big gasp of air but couldn't. For 30 breathless seconds, Patterson tried to inhale only to eventually succeed in heaving, sobbing gasps.

'Something is really wrong,' she recalls saying.

Patterson was immediately taken to the Dawson nursing station. The nurse put a finger monitor on Patterson to measure her oxygen levels. The readings were at 60, she recalls. The nurse said they should have been 90, and that wasn't good.

A doctor was called and within 30 minutes Patterson was given an x-ray.

'The doctor said, OK, we're going to fly you to Whitehorse,'' recalls Patterson.

She was warned the flight would cost her $5,000 that wouldn't be covered by her province's health care system, but also told she had no choice. The doctor feared Patterson was suffering a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in her lungs that could be fatal.

At the time, Patterson wanted to put the trip off to the following morning so she could spend the night celebrating with fellow river questers and save the cost of the flight.

When she relayed this to the doctor, she was told, 'You don't seem to understand this is serious; we have to get you to Whitehorse.'

Within two hours of leaving her boat, Patterson was on a helicopter, headed for Whitehorse General Hospital. That was last Saturday.

'I didn't see (Dawson) at all,' said Patterson, sad that she missed the highlight of her tripóthe celebration after the race.

'The race isn't fun; the race is gruelling.'

She was told that since doctors had been treating her for the worst-case scenario since Dawson, most of her blood clots had likely already been thinned out.

She received more good news when Peter Coates, one of the River Quest board members, dropped by the hospital to give Patterson a sandwich bag stuffed with $1,260 cash.

Word of Patterson's serious situation had spread quickly among the river questers and a hat was passed to help cover her medevac bill.

Patterson also had good things to say about her stay at Whitehorse General.

'It seems like everyone went to Disney training school, they're all smiling and so happy,' she said of the staff.

Patterson was also impressed by how modern and well-equipped the Dawson nursing station and Whitehorse hospital are.

Despite her upsetting experience, Patterson says this won't be her last Yukon River Quest.

'I'm sure I'll be back,' she said, adding that depending on her health, she may help out as as ground crew instead of paddling.

Patterson was released from the hospital today.