Copybook rescue of injured crewman

Thumb lost in winch

A copybook rescue of an injured fisherman began on Friday afternoon when Far North Coastguard Radio received a call from Craig Burns, skipper of the FV Eclipse, advising of severe injuries to one of his crew and requesting evacuation by helicopter.

The police were advised of the situation and the location of Eclipse at Cascade Bay, on the south-west side of Great Island, one of the Three Kings, where the vessel was taking shelter, but the job was never going to be easy, Coastguard Radio's Annette Hall said.

"The weather was atrocious; the forecast was for northeast winds at 25 knots with the sea becoming very rough, two metres southwest easing and an easterly swell rising to three metres, so heading for her home port of Houhora, at least nine hours away, wasn't an option," she said.

The injured crewman, Terry Martin, had worked on the Eclipse for eight years and was very experienced and respected, she added, but was in real need of assistance.

His hand had been caught in a winch, severing his thumb, while it was feared that he could lose a finger as well. He was reported to be in severe pain.

A Northland Electricity rescue helicopter was dispatched, and at 6.45pm, less than two hours after the first call was received and after refuelling at Kaitaia on the way north, the pilot advised that a winchman was being lowered on to Eclipse's deck.

Twenty-one minutes later Mr Martin was aboard the helicopter and heading for hospital.

He was assessed at Whangarei, where the helicopter again refuelled, before continuing the flight to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.

"Credit must be given to the pilot and paramedics during this potentially treacherous rescue," Ms Hall said.

"Despite the conditions it was all completed within two hours, give or take a couple of minutes, from the initial call to police to a successful air lift."

The helicopter arrived at Middlemore Hospital at approximately 10.30pm, Mr Martin undergoing four and a half hours' surgery where the nerves and tendons on one index finger were reattached and a second finger was pinned and screwed. The thumb, which had travelled with the injured man, still inside his glove, could not be reattached.