Shania repays Life Flight rescue

MASTERTON schoolgirl Shania Allen-Jury sent her pocket money and flowers to the Life Flight rescue team on Monday almost a year to the day since the emergency crew helped saved her life.
In late August last year, Shania, then aged 7, fell ill.
She was feeling cold and sick, had a pain in her left shoulder and a temperature of 40C, her mother, Rachael Jury, said.
She rushed her daughter to the doctor and Shania was immediately admitted to Wairarapa Hospital diagnosed with chicken pox-related pneumonia a potentially fatal illness.
Her condition worsened and an X-ray revealed she had a collapsed left lung and empyema a severe infection of the chest cavity.
"It was the longest time of my life," Miss Jury said. "It's amazing how something as small as chicken pox can turn into a life-threatening illness."
She said the rescue airlift to Wellington Hospital was a first-time helicopter flight for both of them and, for her, an extremely frightening experience.
"I screamed the whole way," she said, "and not just because Shania was dying."
Helicopter pilot Harry Stevenson said a route over the Rimutakas was impossible as the altitude could have killed Shania, who was also asthmatic.
They instead went the long way around and followed the coast to Wellington.
After being stabilised that night, Miss Jury said, Shania under went surgery early the next morning.
Almost two litres of fluid was drained from Shania's lung during the nearly three-hour operation.
Surgery was "very risky", Miss Jury said, but it saved her daughter's life.
Shania spent 10 days recovering from surgery in the children's ward "downstairs with the babies" as her infection barred her from a child cancer ward upstairs, Miss Jury said.
It took Shania another six weeks to fully recover while on a course of antibiotics through that time.
The experience of Shania Allen-Jury is shared by a growing number of Wairarapa residents, Life Flight marketing manager Janet Skilton said.
In the past year, the Life Flight Westpac rescue helicopter has flown 111 lifesaving missions from Wairarapa to the Wellington, Auckland City and Starship hospitals, she said.
Ms Skilton said the Westpac helicopter flew 63 Wairarapa patients and the Wellington-based, fixed-wing air ambulance transported 33 patients from the region.
Another 15 patients were flown in the Auckland-based aircraft with most being sick children taken to Starship specialist paediatric care.