When Grace Roxburgh started feeling unwell one November evening in 2024, everyone thought she was having a heart attack.
Then the Canterbury Westpac Rescue helicopter arrived.
“I remember the paramedic popping out of the helicopter, taking one look at me, and saying, ‘This woman’s not having a heart attack — she’s got sepsis’,” Grace says.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition whereby a person’s immune response to an infection can cause damage to their own tissues and organs. Sepsis can develop very quickly; immediate treatment is vital.
“The paramedic from the rescue helicopter quickly realised what was happening to me. I remember him saying, ‘We need to hurry and get her to town.’”
By road, town is about two hours away from the North Canterbury beef and sheep farm where Grace and husband Hamish live. By helicopter, it was only 30 minutes.
“The helicopter arrived very quickly. It was dark, we had the fire brigade here and trucks on the road with flashing lights. We heard the helicopter coming and then it landed right next to us in the paddock,” Grace says.
Westpac Rescue Helicopter Critical Care Paramedic Steve Pudney remembers meeting Grace that night.
“She was in the ambulance when we landed. I talked to the paramedics who thought because Grace was in pain and having trouble breathing she was having a heart attack, but that’s not what I saw,” Steve says.
Steve says Grace’s low blood pressure, temperature and description of how she was feeling all pointed towards an infection that had turned septic.
“Sepsis is one of the biggest killers on the planet and it usually starts from a simple infection. Usually, the body can naturally fight an infection but if for some reason the body can’t, the infection gets into the blood and goes through the entire body.”
Steve gave Grace fluids to rehydrate her, antibiotics, and medications to tighten her blood vessels, to try to get her blood pressure up.
“It can be really daunting for rural ambulance officers when they come across patients who are critically unwell, like Grace was. The ambulance crew were very concerned for her. She needed the rescue helicopter. We brought the right clinical skillset to the scene and got her to hospital with the speed she required.”
Critical Care Paramedic Steve Pudney
The next 24-hours are a little vague for Grace.
“A few hours after getting to Christchurch Hospital a doctor said to me ‘You do not realise how sick you are’. That’s when I realised that if they had dawdled and put me in a road ambulance I might have had a very different outcome.”
Doctors never managed to work out what caused Grace’s sepsis, but after “massive doses” of antibiotics she was on the mend.
This wasn’t the first time the Westpac Rescue Helicopter has been there for the Roxburgh family. In 2021, Grace’s granddaughter Elsie was picked up suffering from Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
“We all live on the same farm, with my daughter and her husband the third generation to farm here.
“Living rurally, and a long way from medical care, it’s hugely reassuring to know the Westpac Rescue Helicopter is there. I’m sure everyone else in the district feels the same.”
Grace and her family regularly see the rescue helicopter flying overhead.
“The rescue helicopter has truly been a lifeline for our family. Knowing it’s always there, should we need it, gives us real peace of mind.”
