Crossbow victim tells her story

The story as it appears in the <i>New Zealand Woman's Weekly</i>.

An Auckland woman who miraculously survived after she was struck in the head by a bolt from a crossbow initially thought she'd been hit by a bird.

Adele Curran, 42, was watering pot plants on her deck in January when a crossbow arrow fired by her neighbour flew over the fence and embedded itself 3cm into her skull, between her right eye socket and nose.

In an exclusive interview, the Glen Eden woman told the New Zealand Woman's Weekly she thought a bird had flown into her when she felt something strike her face, but then saw the bolt's shaft pointing out of her head.

"I could feel the blood going down my face and in my nose and throat, then I saw the shaft sticking out," she told the magazine. "It was a thick shaft, not a thin one."

She called her 16-year-old son Ryan "a hero" for keeping her calm and urging her not to try and pull the bolt out before emergency services arrived.

Ambulance officers arrived within 10 minutes and took Curran to hospital, where she spent several week undergoing a number of operations on her eye.

Her eye was saved but her vision remains blurry.

The neighbour, a carpenter who wanted only to be known as Tommy, told the Herald on Sunday after the accident that he was sorry for the "nightmarish" accident.

He said he was playing with the crossbow a Christmas gift from his wife in his backyard when it unexpectedly fired, even though the safety was on.

No charges will be laid by police after they concluded what happened was an accident.

"I'm very relieved," said Tommy. "It was most definitely an accident and I'm glad she is going to be all right."

As soon as the accident happened Tommy said he ran to Curran's aid to help Ryan, who was trying to keep her calm.

"As soon as it happened I heard her scream and went running inside and said, 'I think I just shot someone'. I was absolutely petrified that she was going to die," he said.

Curran's father, John, said at the time there was a lot of blood at the scene and she was screaming until her son calmed her down.

"There was a lot of blood on the deck and she was screaming and screaming," he said. "When the ambulance came they drove her slowly to the hospital so they didn't bump it.

"They had to prise her hands off the bolt because she didn't want to let it go."

Curran told the Woman's Weekly she has not yet returned to work, but hopes to go back soon.

She called the actions of her neighbour "idiotic" but said she is not angry with him.

Crossbows are available to buy through many hardware stores and, unlike firearms, do not have any licensing requirements.

Curran's full interview and more pictures appear in this week's Woman's Weekly.