Leighton Smith spoke to the woman for several minutes. File photo / Herald on Sunday
Are you, or do you know, the woman who stopped to help the distraught Newstalk ZB caller this morning? Please Email the Herald Newsdesk
A distraught woman has been rushed to hospital after a good Samaritan heard her anguished call to a radio station and used a fire extinguisher to smash her car window.
The woman, known only as Clare, called NewstalkZB today barely able to speak through tears and told host
Leighton Smith she was seriously troubled by the limited access she had to her son.
"I wish you could help me," she said from her car near the air force base at Whenuapai, Auckland as she broke down in tears again.
She said she did not want to give any more information about where she was because "all you are going to is to make my life go on and I can't let it go on. It is just too hard, it is just too awful," she sobbed.
Newstalk ZB reported the woman took an overdose of drugs.
The call lasted several minutes. It started with Mr Smith asking her why she was crying and what she had done that was "silly".
Mr Smith established she was at the air force base.
"I am lying down in the car," she said.
"It is just too hard. I just wanted to be a good mum and I only get to see my boy every second weekend."
Mr Smith told her if she did not let them help her she would not see her son again and he would not see her again.
"For him not to see you again would be a terrible thing," he told her.
A listener, identified only as Melissa, heard the call and raced to the airport and found the woman.
"She was lying down and I just got my fire extinguisher. Somebody else had stopped and we smashed the window and called the ambulance.
"She is just in such a state but she is conscious and she'll be all right."
St John Ambulance said today several 111 calls were made by people who heard the distressed woman's call.
"It is good there are people out there acting on information they hear on the radio and are concerned enough to call an ambulance," said shift manager Allan Rhodes.
- NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF
