The motorcycle crash that nearly killed Hope Pearce ruptured her spleen and a rod was inserted into her left leg after it broke in three places.
Her other injuries included lacerations to both kidneys and her liver, fractures to her sternum, ribs and spine, a collapsed lung, and engine burns to her right leg.
Pearce has stomach pain and takes painkillers to sleep. When she gets up in the morning, she limps and has to warm up her leg to get moving. By the end of the day, the limp is back.
But it’s the mental stress that has been the “toughest thing to cope with”.
Pearce, a 37-year-old Tauranga mother of four, told the Bay of Plenty Times it had been “one hell of a year” since she woke from an induced coma in Rotorua Hospital’s intensive care unit on October 25, 2023 – two days after being thrown from her motorbike on SH5 near Rotorua while riding with friends.
Pearce said she could not remember the accident but witnesses told her her bike wobbled severely for more than 100m as she tried to regain control.
“I was high-sided into the air and landed on the cheese-cutters [wire median barrier rails].”
She underwent two surgeries while in a coma to remove her ruptured spleen, stop the internal bleeding and repair her left femur which was broken into three parts. A metal rod was inserted into the leg.
Pearce said she lost $22,000 of assets that day – her Harley-Davidson 48 Sportster, her protective riding gear and her mobile phone.
But she also lost her ability to return to work and had to take antibiotics daily due to her compromised immune system.
“I still don’t remember anything about the accident and that’s one of my biggest struggles. Going from enjoying a ride with friends to waking up in a hospital bed and your whole world’s changed, and I’ve felt like a stranger in my own body.
“Everything I knew about myself, my independence, my ability to provide for my children, to work, to have the funds to repair my bike, and my car which recently blew up. It’s been hellish and mentally one of the hardest times of my life.”
Pearce said she underwent further surgery on April 12 to replace the steel rod in her left leg with a bigger one because the wound site was not healing.
“The new rod goes right into my hip so my left knee will stay permanently rotated in, and the only way to fix it is to rebreak the whole leg. But my orthopaedic surgeon ... decided not to do so.
“I’ve been told it will be 18 months before it’s fully healed but the surgeon is not keen to take the rod out ever unless it’s causing me severe pain as the leg would be too unstable.”
Pearce said she still had ongoing pain in both legs and intermittent stomach pain and took painkillers to sleep.
“It’s a stabby ache right into the core of the bone ... I still can’t be up a full day as I get exhausted easily. It’s the mental stress of what happened is the toughest thing to cope with. One of the hardest things is not being able to be a 100% mum for my kids,” she said.
“I can only go for small walks, and I can’t run yet and when I first get up I have a limp and have to warm the leg up and by the end of the day, I’m limping again. ”
Pearce said ACC agreed to pay for visits to a pain specialist, a psychologist, a social worker, a nutritionist, and a physiotherapist to try to strengthen her lower-back ligaments.
Pearce said her fiance, who she will marry on February 22, had been “amazing’”.
“Your whole mindset changes when you nearly die and live in pain every day and the impact of the crash has also taken its toll on him and my kids.
“I have to believe this happened to me for a reason, that’s what I hold on to during the tough times ... And I believe something good will come into my life and I’ll get the $22,000 assets I lost back if I give back to others. I’m still standing, I’m still smiling, and there’s still hope things will get better one day.”
Pearce said she planned to become an alternative healing therapist and use her life experiences to mentor others experiencing trauma.
She said the police had told her the road’s condition was a contributing factor to the crash and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s (NZTA) website showed this stretch of road was earmarked for safety repairs from October 10, 2023 – 13 days before the crash.
“This indicates to me that NZTA recognised the road needed safety improvements. At the time of my accident, there were no warning signs, road cones or any other indication that the road was unsafe.”
Pearce said she was committed to advocating for the necessary safety improvements to prevent a similar crash.
Police said the stretch of highway appeared “worn in places” but the crash could not solely be attributed to the state of the road and they were not taking any further action.
Sandra King, NZTA system manager for the Bay of Plenty region, said
its investigation found no evidence of defects that required immediate repairs at the time of the crash.
“Minor depressions in the road surface from wheel tracks were starting to form, which is common across New Zealand roads. They were not at the level where intervention was required.”
King said scheduled maintenance had taken place along this roading corridor before and after the crash in preparation for resealing but none of the pre-sealing works were near the crash site.
She said the repairs had performed well and resealing on this stretch of highway had started.
“One area was completed on January 29, and there were another two days of work from the large culvert near the Agrodome/Velocity to the bridge past Dansey Rd [where the wire rope median ends heading north] which should be completed by [this] week, weather dependent.”
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.
Two Tauranga house fires on June 14 were put out by Fire and Emergency NZ firefighters.