Missing out
Based on my tragic personal experience, I want everybody in the Far North to know how desperately our Te Hiku Ward needs a community-sized hydrotherapy pool built to physiotherapy standards in the proposed Te Hiku Sports Hub's Aquatic Centre.
I was born in Kaitaia 71 years ago. Two years ago, on March 14, 2012, I had a cerebellum stroke. After spending 12 days in Whangarei Hospital we returned to Awanui. I had to learn how to walk again, because the stroke affected my balance seriously. A physiotherapist told me that daily hydrotherapy exercises in warm water would help my rehabilitation greatly. So I was extremely discouraged to find out it was impossible for me to get any time scheduled in the one-person hydrotherapy pool in the Kaitaia Hospital. The waiting list was months long.
Last year I heard from my sister-in-law, Margaret Moore, who lives in Darwin, Australia, that she unfortunately had a stroke too, the same type of cerebellum stroke and about the same severity as mine. But Margaret is lucky that there is a hydrotherapy pool in her community. She had sessions there every day.
I was stunned to find out how fast and complete Margaret's recovery was compared with mine. Margaret attributes this primarily to the hydrotherapy sessions.
