Survival is a miracle

Karen McGregor-Dawson has only cried once after a smash that left two people dead, a man charged with a raft of driving offences and herself facing months in a wheelchair.
The 39-year-old wept when she was moved from Auckland Hospital to a resthome in Mt Eden to convalesce until her injuries had healed enough for her to get up on her feet.
The trigger was being wheeled into her ward and hearing aged residents quaveringly singing Ten Guitars. Then, because it was a resthome, she had to sign forms asking whether she had made her will, if she wanted to be resuscitated if her heart stopped and had she made funeral arrangements.
"Then to top it all off, at dinner time they brought me in some pureed thing in a bowl with a dribble tray attached," she laughs.
Karen is in a ward where most of the other patients have dementia, and the next youngest person is 80 years old. On Wednesday she had an outing, though - she and some of the "oldies" were taken in the home's van to the Parnell Rose Gardens.
Yet, she's very grateful to be there. It makes sense, she says, for health boards to fund the rehabilitation of patients such as herself - no longer needing to be in hospital but unable to go home - at nurse-staffed resthomes.
Karen was returning home to Auckland on October 3 after visiting her parents at Paihia when an allegedly stolen car driven by a teenager pulled out to overtake and collided with her RAV4 in Dome Valley, south of Wellsford.
Two passengers in the other car were killed and Karen suffered a badly broken femur, wrist and collar bone.
Her car was torn in two by the impact, but she looks forward to getting another.
"I've test crashed the RAV4, and survived. I think when I get out I'll try to hit Toyota up for a replacement. I'm good advertising for them."
Karen faces many more weeks in a wheelchair, unable to use crutches because of the kind of fractures she has. By Christmas she hopes to be well into physiotherapy and up and about. In the meantime, her partner, friends and family visit regularly, and her Christian faith keeps her strong.
"I've personally never been one to hold onto anger or bitterness. I've always believed it's not what happens to you, it's how you deal with it that counts," she says. "And my faith helps me get through anything." Besides, her situation could be worse, she adds. "The whole thing has been a miracle. It could have been so much worse - my spine, my neck, my brain ... "
There are silver linings to everything. Karen has been deeply impressed with the care and work of the "wonderful" St John staff, police, firefighters and helicopter personnel who helped her. And, she laughs, after her story was in the newspaper she's caught up with people she hasn't seen for years.
When she is able to walk, Karen may complete her recovery with her parents, "Buddy" and Janice McGregor-Dawson, in Paihia.
The Far North youth driving the allegedly stolen Mercedes told the North Shore Youth Court earlier this week he would plead guilty to charges including dangerous driving causing injury and death.