Whaakari/White Island: Whakatāne Hospital staff open up about the day of the eruption

Whakatane Hospital staff share an embrace as they recall Whakaari / White Island's eruption. Photo / George Novak

Nearly a year since the emergency department doors at Whakatāne Hospital were used to usher in critically injured victims of the Whakaari/White Island eruption, eight staff who were among the first responders relived the tragedy.

The group of hospital staff recalled the unthinkable sights and sounds of December 9 with pride and sadness at a media conference yesterday, reflecting on the fatal eruption.

Occupational therapist Ellise Robinson spoke through sobs as she remembered the injured streaming into the hospital.

She was part of initiating and providing an emergency response from the helicopter pad through to the emergency department.

"I witnessed many things that will stay with me forever," she said.

"I think that no hospital in the world is prepared for something like this."

However, the hospital and wider community came together and there was a strong sense of kotahitanga, she said.

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"I still feel devastated that such a tragedy happened, but I also feel so proud of the care that was provided here and throughout Aotearoa."

General medicine practitioner Dr Peter Thorson was the doctor assigned to meet the private helicopters bringing in patients.

He has worked in seven Intensive Care Units and said the Whakaari White Island patients were "some of the sickest" he has seen.

"Opening the door and seeing the patients inside was the sort of shock that you have to repress to get the work done."

After he brought patients into the emergency department and helped with several resuscitations, he was assigned to supervise the Intensive Care Unit.

Whakatāne Hospital occupational therapist Ellise Robinson. Photo / George Novak

Thorson explained that each patient had a team which included a junior doctor, senior and junior nurses and any other support staff that was needed.

"Everyone from an anesthesiologist to put in breathing tubes, to non-clinical staff to do whatever was needed."

"Those teams did the work of caring for some of the sickest," he paused as he re-composed himself."

If the teams were not giving fluids, medication, or washing out burns, they were talking to the patients: "letting them know that someone was there".

"In some instances, these would be their final conversations, and our staff carry these with them."

Whakatāne Hospital general medical physician Dr. Peter Thorson (left) with acute care clinical nurse manager Lou Blackburn. Photo / George Novak

Nurse educator emergency department/Acute Care Unit and resuscitation co-ordinator Adele Ferguson has been a critical care nurse for more than 20 years and said it was like nothing she had ever seen before.

"The sheer volume of critically ill patients that came to the hospital in a short space of time ... is something I've never experienced," she said.

"Momentarily, the enormity of the situation was overwhelming. Then you reset, drawing on everyone's different skills and experiences."

Doors were opened between the emergency department and Acute Care Unite to make more room, allowing patients and staff to flow through easily.

Dave Rondon was one of six orderlies rostered on that day, with another six called in to help.

"That afternoon, 'mass casualty' appeared on our pager - this message is now etched in our memories."

They immediately started moving patients to where they needed to go, changing medical air bottles, checking and double-checking supplies.

"People were everywhere and the pace seemed frenetic at times."

Some of the orderlies worked 17 hours that day. They collectively clocked up 100km supporting the clinical teams.

"I feel honoured to be part of a team doing everything to help those people, but there is also sadness at the outcome, the loss of life."

Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief executive Pete Chandler. Photo / George Novak

Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief executive Pete Chandler said the eruption created a scenario that no one other than those involved could truly understand.

"Given that this is a situation that none of us had encountered before, not least for a rural general hospital, to suddenly with just minutes' notice, step up and become a trauma centre in the Eastern Bay, we did awesomely."

Chandler said everybody in the hospital played a unique part and wanted to celebrate everyone who worked there.

"But this was a trauma, particularly for the Eastern Bay. It wasn't a one-off. It was a trauma on an embedded history ... there was a trauma on top of other events that have happened to the communities here and as we have talked about Whakaari in our teams, people talk about Edgecumbe floods, the Edgecumbe earthquake.

"I want to acknowledge those who have had layers of history which have contributed to their story."

Duty nurse manager David Henderson spoke of the moment hospital staff learned what had happened and the long night of response that followed.

"The thing that really stands out for me is the compassion and humanity that the whole community displayed.

"I know that some staff are still affected by this event but they should know that they all contributed to give every patient a chance."

Henderson said their thoughts and condolences went out to those families most impacted by the tragedy, "those whose lives were lost, and those whose lives were changed forever".