Lives Saved by the Rescue Heli

Rob – Trapped Under Water:  A truly life-saving mission

A day out with friends turned into a life-threatening ordeal for Rob when he became trapped in a boat filling with water.

“My friend Dick was with me, doing an amazing job holding my head out of the water. I remember going down all the time and him pulling me out,” Rob says.

The group was boating down Broken River when they struck a submerged rock. The impact smashed the boat into a cliff face, wedged it against a tree, and caused it to rapidly fill with water.

After friends activated their personal locator beacon, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was dispatched. Unaware of the challenge ahead, the crew responded immediately.

Critical Care Paramedic Kath was winched into the boat and submerged herself to free Rob’s broken leg from beneath the dashboard. In a complex rescue, the crew then winched Rob backwards and into the helicopter.

“The rescue helicopter service is a godsend and Kath is a goddess. They saved my life.”

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Emma – Rescued from a mid-Canterbury paddock

Emma was at her parents-in-law’s Mayfield farm when she started bleeding. She had only given birth to her first child, Cooper, three weeks earlier.

Emma waited, hoping for the bleeding to stop.

“After an hour and a half I thought I could be in trouble. I was trying not to panic,” Emma remembers.

Emma called her midwife which quickly escalated into a call to111. It wasn’t long until she heard an unmistakable sound overhead.

“Hearing the chopper coming in, I can still feel the rush of the rotor blades. It honestly felt like an angel landing in the paddock.”

Emma was having a post-partum haemorrhage and had already lost half a litre of blood.

Paramedics on the rescue helicopter treated Emma and managed to get the bleeding to stop by the time she reached Christchurch Hospital.

Emma and Cooper returned to the service recently to thank the crews who saved her.

“They’re just heroes, plain and simple.”

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