Woman with broken back crawled out of the rubble

Bonnie Singh escaped Southern Ink Tattoo during the earthquake, suffering a bad knock to the head and a broken back and neck. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Her back and neck were broken in seven places, but Bonnie Singh could only focus on one thing - getting out of the building that had collapsed around her.

The 28-year-old was working at the Southern Ink Tattoo studio on Colombo St when the earthquake struck. She and colleague Matti McEachen tried to escape, but only Ms Singh made it out alive.

Eight days later, despite seven fractured vertebrae, she walked out of the spinal unit at Burwood Hospital - a feat most patients do not achieve.

The day the quake hit was Ms Singh's first back at work after a long weekend.

"It started shaking and me and Matti just looked at each other, then we ran for our lives," she said.

"I saw Matti's hand open the door and I thought, 'Sweet, safety. We're almost there'. And that's when I felt something hit me on the head and I blacked out. The force on my head was horrific. It felt like a concrete slab."

Ms Singh was knocked out for about 10 minutes.

"My first thought when I woke up was, 'If that's what it's like to die, it's pretty quick'. As I woke up more I was like 'God, I'm not dead'. I got to my feet and ran to the back door. My head was really, really sore. I was like, 'Shit, I'm going to die'.

"I looked to the front of the shop and saw a gap in the rubble. I thought, 'I don't care how sore I am, I'm going to climb out through that shit.' I crawled through it and started screaming, 'Where's Matti, where's Matti?"'

About seven people jumped into the rubble and started digging to find Mr McEachen. Though Ms Singh was reluctant to leave her friend, she was taken to hospital.

"I thought Matti was going to be wheeled in any minute. Everyone who came in, I checked out."

At the hospital, Ms Singh texted her husband, Daniel Tither, saying she was okay and that she was waiting for him to come and get her.

It was only when there was another aftershock and a vent in the roof fell in front of her that she told him the real extent of her injuries.

"I just broke down. I texted Daniel: 'I'm alone, been hit on the head and I can't feel my legs'."

By the time Mr Tither got to his wife, she had been seen by a doctor and admitted. Hours later an x-ray revealed she had five fractured vertebrae in her back and two in her neck.

Then she heard about Mr McEachen.

"A support worker came in and said they thought they had found him in ED. My face just beamed and I thought, 'Yes!'

"She came back and told me that he'd passed away. I just broke down."

Ms Singh spent several days in Christchurch Hospital before being transferred to the Burwood spinal unit, where she was diagnosed with delayed concussion.

"The first two or three days she didn't care if she was alive," Mr Tither said. "She was pretty down about him dying and she was saying she should have been dead too. No one mattered to her in that state of mind, except when I reminded her of our daughter Ebony, who's 4."

After a few days she started to realise how lucky she was to be a survivor.

"I'm lucky to be walking, or even alive. I was only about two steps behind Matti, so to be sitting here today is weird. But, this is really nothing compared to what others are going through. I've got a few broken bones but whoopee - I walked out of the spinal unit and not many people do that. I can move on with my life and so many people will never be the same again."