THEY SAVED ME
Laura Sixtus.
“The surgeon was pretty blunt with me and said that if I hadn’t got to surgery when I did it would not have ended well for me.”
Golden Bay farmer Laura Sixtus has patchy memories of the events that lead to her being airlifted to Nelson Hospital by the Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter at 1am in the morning.
April 2021 – Anzac Day – saw Laura and a bunch of friends camping, fishing and exploring on motorbikes along the wild west coast around the Kahurangi Lighthouse. After dark they set off to Harwoods Hut, ready for an early departure the next morning.
“We were riding along the beach, two to a quad bike, but the lights on our bike were pretty dim.”
The bike Laura was on crashed into a rock, and Laura was launched over the handlebars and into the rock. The driver was unhurt – she managed to jump off – but Laura took the full impact in her head, arms and stomach.
With her face bloodied from a broken nose and eyebrow bone, broken bones in her arms and hands, plus concussion, her friends managed to get her into another vehicle and drive 30 minutes to the hut. One friend had a locator beacon which he set off when he heard what had happened, and they were able to call for help from the public phone at Harwoods Hut.
“I thought I just had a few broken bones, and they could drive me to the hospital, but it turned out to be much worse than that so I’m very grateful the helicopter was able to come.”
The helicopter arrived around 1am in the morning and Laura says that they gave her pain relief and kept her and a friend who came in the helicopter to keep her company, calm during the flight despite a very stressful situation.
In hospital, with her arm in a cast and her facial wounds treated, her condition worsened.
“I was in a lot of pain and was throwing up blood and black stuff.”
Emergency surgery diagnosed a potentially fatal perforated bowel.
“The surgeon was pretty blunt with me and said that if I hadn’t got to surgery when I did it would not have ended well for me.”
A few months on from the accident Laura is up and about and back at work, but says it will take her a long time to recover.
“It catches you out sometimes, the physical recovery is ongoing but it’s the mental and emotional recovery that takes longer. I’m just so grateful that the helicopter came and that they knew what to do.”
Laura says that for years her parents – Golden Bay hoteliers – have run a fundraising event every year for the rescue helicopter. “It was pretty cool to know we’d contributed in the past to this amazing service, and it really paid off for me!”
