Caregiver charged with manslaughter

A Sunday afternoon at the pub ended in tragedy for Western Bay tetraplegic Nikora Bidois after his caregiver allegedly failed to secure his wheelchair.

The 37-year-old toppled on to his face and died from a lack of oxygen on April 18, 2004, while being driven home from the Te Puna Tavern.

The driver, Christine Ngaio Paenga, 59, is on trial in the Tauranga District Court charged with Mr Bidois' manslaughter.

She had been his caregiver for six years.

In his opening address to a jury in the High Court at Rotorua on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Simon Bridges said Mr Bidois, who was left a tetraplegic after a motor vehicle accident in 1991, died after his wheelchair fell over in a van driven by his caregiver.

"He was propelled from his wheelchair on to the floor, injuring his face. Due to his obesity and tetraplegia, it would have taken only a few minutes before he died of positional asphyxia or a lack of oxygen."

Mr Bridges told the jury that on the evening of April 18, following an afternoon at the tavern and a few drinks with friends, Mr Bidois and Paenga readied themselves for home.

Paenga had strapped herself into the driver's seat, accompanied by Brian Smith, whom she had agreed to drop home. Mr Bidois was placed into the rear of the van by another witness, Shirley Faulkner.

Mr Bridges said Mr Bidois was not strapped as "he said it was for old people". A rail that he usually held on to in the back of the van was broken.

The trio then, closely followed by Miss Faulkner, travelled down Minden Rd and on to State Highway 2 before approaching the intersection of Te Puna and Armstrong Rds.

It is here, Mr Bridges said, that Miss Faulkner's evidence would show Paenga stopped abruptly, something which Miss Faulkner put down to her missing the turn into Armstrong Rd where Mr Smith lived.

The Crown alleges that Mr Bidois toppled from his wheelchair on to the floor.

Paenga did not notice anything wrong until she negotiated the steep driveway to Mr Bidois' home and as she was unable to move Mr Bidois, she called his brother, Puhi Tarau, for help, Mr Bridges said.

It is alleged CPR was never tried as Mr Bidois "was still warm" and therefore Paenga presumed he was alive.

But minutes later Mr Tarau found his younger brother was not breathing and the ambulance was called.

Defence lawyer Rachael Adams said it was "sad" that Mr Bidois had died, but it was not Paenga's fault.

"She was safe and legal to drive and did drive safely."

Instead, she said, "[a] very sick man in a poor state of health" had fallen from his wheelchair as a result of a medical condition, while negotiating his own driveway.

"What could well have killed him is epilepsy or cardiovascular disease" - both conditions he had been diagnosed with.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)