We see their bright red and yellow livery buzzing above us, and hope we never need their services ourselves. But when we do, Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter is there, getting us to hospital as quickly as possible. A gym staffer, a mum, a construction manager and a farmer are amongst
Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter fundraiser: Cardiac arrest, burns and accidents' victims tell their stories
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When son Xavier (centre) burned himself in an accident at home, mum Jade Thorburn wished she could swap places "because he's so little", but the 2-year-old's since made a full recovery. Photo / Mike Scott
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His mum, Jade Thorburn, is sharing the family's story in support of the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter's latest fundraiser.
The oil, which also splashed the 1-year-old's back and side, caused mild first-degree thermal burns on and under his feet, with Xavier then having to be flown by rescue helicopter to Waikato Hospital for treatment.
There, the youngest of their five kids was put under anaesthetic, his blisters scraped off and his wounds dressed, mum Thorburn says.
A few days later, their little boy was home.
"He's made a total recovery, and has no scars. He's really lucky", she says of Xavier, now aged two.
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"The only [reminder] is his little feet are a bit sensitive. We can touch his little feet and he's giggling because it's ticklish. He was always like that, but nowhere like he does now. The tiniest touch and he gasps."
The family had enjoyed a favourite meal of chicken nugget wraps and were doing the dishes when they heard a loud bang and screaming, discovering Xavier in the pantry where the deep fryer was sitting on a low shelf.
"It happened in a second, and we were right there. We should've shut the pantry doors, because he was just starting to walk.
"His dad's a volunteer fireman, so he put him straight in the bath and ran cold water. He was screaming … [and] we could see a lot of redness and blistering over his legs and feet."
When ambulance officers arrived, they told the couple the decision had already been made to call Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter so Xavier could be flown to hospital, Thorburn says.
"That was a bit shocking. I was crying because I knew, 'Ok, this is bad' … I just wished I could swap places. Because he's so little."
The first suggestion from the rescue helicopter's paramedic was to administer pain relief through Xavier's nose, as his earlier treatment "wasn't really working", Thorburn says.
"He said, 'maybe if you put it up his nose it will get ingested really fast', and then [Xavier] was out.
"You feel so safe with them."
The helicopter also halved the time it would've taken to reach Waikato Hospital by road, with Xavier in hospital 24 minutes after take-off.
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It's not easy to talk about what happened in August last year, but it's worth doing to support a service that came to their little boy's aid when he needed it most, Thorburn says.
"They know what they're doing, and we're really lucky to have them."
'S***, this isn't going to end well'
Bruce Tomlinson just wanted to deal to some thistles.
Instead, a slippery one dealt to him.
The Warkworth father-of-two had a brand-new sprayer hooked up to his Valtra 90HP tractor last November when he stopped on a hilly section of his family's Wellsford cattle farm to switch the four-wheel drive on.
But as he braked, the wheels of the tractor "slid on some juicy thistles".
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"[I was] like a duck on ice … I remember correcting one way and then the other, and thinking, 's***, this isn't going to end well'."
The 63-year-old was right.
As the tractor flipped, covered only by a roll bar and sunroof, Tomlinson could hear his bones "cracking and crunching".
"Somehow my legs were spared. I don't know how. I've got a stronger belief in angels than I had, that's for sure."
He ended up splayed on the grass after the second of three rolls, before the tractor landed wheels-up and continued rolling 80 metres down the hillside.
Unconscious after suffering skull fractures and a head injury later described by doctors as a "degloving" of his forehead, it was about 10 minutes before Tomlinson came to.
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Despite his injuries - which included fractures to his skull, seven broken ribs, fractured vertebrae in his back and neck, and injuries to both scapulars - Tomlinson was able to fish his cellphone from his pocket and dial 111.
Forty minutes later the "wonderful" crew from St John Ambulance reached him and, soon after that, he heard the welcome sound of the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter.
"What a fabulous sound. Landing in a nearby paddock, crew carefully loaded me onto a stretcher and navigated their way over challenging terrain to get me ready for take-off."
Most of the 20-minute flight to Auckland City Hospital is a blur, but it was not all gloom, despite the situation.
"[I remember] a laugh or two with these incredibly giving souls."
He doesn't usually talk publicly about his accident. But if it encourages everyone to support the rescue helicopter service, it's worthwhile.
No one knows when they might need its help themselves.
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"I thought I was immune to needing any such support myself."
'He definitely died a few times'
It was just another winter workday for Matt Smith as he pumped fuel into his ute at Warkworth Mobil on a Thursday morning in June last year.
"I had concrete coming to the job I was doing in Sandspit [near Warkworth], and inspectors turning up", the 50-year-old construction manager says.
Then, abruptly, it was Sunday night, and Smith was lying in a North Shore Hospital bed "with a whole lot of people standing around me".
"I wondered what the hell I was doing".
The married dad-of-four from Mangawhai had been filling his ute when he collapsed, whacking his head on the pump as he fell.
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His heart had stopped beating and he needed help, fast.
Thanks to everyone from the strangers on the forecourt to the rescue helicopter that got him to hospital in 20 minutes, he got it.
Station manager Wilbert Vissers was first to help, quickly assessing Smith before starting to administer CPR whilst a colleague called 111.
"He'd just slumped on the ground like somebody had turned the lights out", Vissers says.
"He was like a rag doll."
About a minute later Warkworth volunteer firefighter Karl Yeo arrived, having been driving within sight of the petrol station when his pager alerted him to Smith's cardiac arrest.
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Yeo took over chest compressions until ambulance officers, arriving on the scene a few minutes later, were ready to use a defibrillator in the attempt to restart Smith's heart.
Over the next 20 minutes, with Yeo later joined by more firefighters to share CPR duties, Smith's heart restarted and then stopped again on at least three occasions.
"He definitely died a few times."
When Smith eventually began breathing on his own, he was taken by ambulance to meet the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter, where he was further stabilised before the journey to hospital.
By air, the mercy dash to North Shore Hospital took just 20 minutes.
Thirteen months on, Smith doesn't know what caused his cardiac arrest.
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But he has to take a moment when asked what he wants to say to all who helped.
"They're incredible … they did the job to save my life. It still gets me a bit today. I'm just ever so grateful to everyone that was involved.
"If you're going to [go into cardiac arrest], I suggest it's at Mobil Warkworth."
When a work retreat turns to disaster
It had sounded like fun - getting together with workmates to go zooming down a sand slope on a boogie board, after months of social isolation.
But last December the reality, for Auckland mum Tina Mason-Riseborough, turned out to be somewhat different.
Picking up too much speed as she slid down the sand at Te Henga (Bethells Beach), the fun came to an abrupt end for the 52-year-old when she face-planted at the bottom, causing a traumatic brain injury, damaging a facial nerve that left her unable to open her left eye for three months, and fracturing her T7 and T8 vertebrae.
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"They didn't tell me to follow someone else's track", Mason-Riseborough says of her ill-fated super slide at the West Auckland beach.
"So what does Tina do? She just goes straight down … and boy I must've got velocity, and when I hit the bottom, well yeah, it all ended there."
For someone who spent three months in a back brace, only able to open one eye, as all-the-while her front-office job for a gym disappeared when the business fell victim to the impact of Covid-19 restrictions, the mum-of-two is remarkably upbeat.
Seven months after her accident, Mason-Riseborough is back on her feet, back at exercise boot-camp and, hopefully, will soon be back behind the wheel.
But the emotions aren't too far from the surface when she talks about those who helped after her flying face-plant left her unconscious and seriously injured in a remote corner of West Auckland, 45 minutes walk from the nearest road.
"I'm sorry", she says, voice catching, when asked about her helpers, including the crew of a Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter who flew her to Auckland City Hospital, a journey she barely remembers.
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"I get a bit emotional talking about this. But I've always believed in [the rescue helicopter service], and I wouldn't be here without them.
"We've always supported [the rescue helicopter]. I'm no-one special, but if I can help them, by telling my story, I will."
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