Adrian Dunn (left) and his brother John who was given six and a half hours to live following a car accident. Photo / Paul Taylor
Adrian Dunn (left) and his brother John who was given six and a half hours to live following a car accident. Photo / Paul Taylor
Paper boy John Dunn, 14, was given six and a half hours to live after he was knocked off his bike by a drunk driver in Hastings. More than 490,000 hours later, he's defied all odds to celebrate his 70th birthday. Sahiban Hyde reports.
Adrian Dunn was too youngto remember his brother John's accident.
But he knows the story by rote.
The year was 1964 and Adrian was in nappies and still finding his feet, as young and naive as New Zealand's health and safety system.
John, the oldest of six brothers, was hit by a car, knocked off the bicycle he was riding and thrown 12 metres over a fence on the corner of Sylvan Rd and Grove Rd.
He would never have even been on that paper round if it weren't for an awful twist of fate - another of his brothers, George, whose paper round it was, had been hit by a car two weeks before.
"The morning of the accident John was on George's paper run, because George had been in an accident when a car hit him and dragged him across the road," Adrian said.
"His leg was cut open and he was taken to the hospital and he was still in hospital when Johnny's accident happened."
The driver was a 17 year-old, who was given a sentence of 15 months Borstal, a system which allowed slightly older offenders (between 15, later 16, and 21) to be detained for one to five years with the goal of reform.
Following the crash, the doctors at Hastings Memorial Hospital gave John six and a half hours to live.
But John, who had brain damage and was in a coma, was a fighter.
Adrian has cherished every one of the hours he's had with John since the six and a half hours ticked over (roughly 490,000). But it hasn't always been easy.
The accident has left John physically and intellectually handicapped, unable to speak and, in certain cases, care for himself.
Adrian Dunn (left) and his brother John. Photo / Paul Taylor
The initial prognosis was grim, Adrian said.
"He was in a coma, he came out of the hospital and came home in a wheelchair" because there was no outpatient ward back then, he said.
"When Johnny got out, dad said, 'He will walk again". Dad did the physio, after he got advice from doctors and physiotherapists," Adrian said.
"Night after night he sat up until 3 to 4 in the morning working on Johnny's legs to get them moving again. He taught him how to walk again."
Their mother was the main carer when their father was at work, Adrian said.
"The brothers were capable of looking after themselves, you just got on with it.
"Once I came of age we helped Mum out with housekeeping and everything else."
John, who hasn't spoken since the accident, and has paralysis on the left-hand side of his face, could still do most things himself.
"But he needed a hand," Adrian said. He took it upon himself to look after his brother, stepping in to look after his ailing parents as well, until they passed away in 2010.
Adrian has lived in the same house on Jellicoe St all his life, apart from going to Australia back in '86, so that he can stay close to John.
Adrian does not have a partner or children, and he believes the time for them has been and gone.
"I am going to keep looking after Johnny. That's just what it is. I am not putting him in a rest home. Blood is thicker than water."
