Willie Murphy being transported to the Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter via a skid.
Willie Murphy being transported to the Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter via a skid.
Hawke’s Bay rescue helicopter crews have already completed 220 missions this year, but one job stands out among them.
Willie Murphy was enjoying a mid-morning tour of a friend’s farm near Hastings on May 3 this year when he suddenly fell headfirst 100m down the side of a hill.
“Istood up but lost my footing in my gumboots on some long, tufty grass,” Murphy said.
“The next thing I remember is tumbling headfirst down the hillside. I clearly recall thinking, oh my god, I can’t stop here.
“The next moment I was conscious ... lying at the bottom of a deep gully, surrounded by my mates.”
Murphy miraculously survived the fall but suffered 11 broken ribs, a perforated lung and a broken foot, turning his mid-morning excursion into a hillside helicopter rescue.
Hawke’s Bay’s Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter received the call and immediately expected the worst.
Within minutes of arriving at the accident scene, the crew spotted Murphy unconscious and lying awkwardly on a sheep track.
Critical care flight paramedic Jack Faxon jnr remembers arriving at the scene and seeing Murphy’s mates applying pressure to the wounds on his head.
“Once we winched him into the chopper, we landed and reassessed him,” Faxon said.
“Given that he fell around 100 metres, we think he’s incredibly lucky – I have seen people die from five-metre falls.”
Murphy said hearing the helicopter was a huge relief. He spent nine days recovering from injuries in hospital and, remarkably, did not require surgery.
“I’m amazingly thankful there was only damage to my ribs and foot, my head took a lot of gashes and I was one rock away from a very different outcome to my spinal cord,” he said.
Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter Paramedic, Jack Faxon jnr (left) and air crew officer Julian Burn (right) surprise Willie Murphy with a bedside hospital visit.
Murphy commended the crew on their skills that got him from unconscious on a hillside into a helicopter using a winch, then to hospital, all within an hour.
“What’s more, six days later on a quiet Sunday, my rescue crew came and saw me in hospital, which was a pretty cool personal touch,” he said.
Faxon jnr said the crew wanted to know how he was doing.
“This is the best part of our job, getting to catch up with people post-incident and to speak to them in their recovery,” he said.
“It was great to see Willie with a big smile on his face.”
Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter’s missions are made possible through essential Government funding, combined with the generous support of local communities who provide grants, sponsorship and donations to sustain operations.
If you are an individual, business or large-scale funder wanting to support the service, you can call 06 878 1630.
