Zoe's chopper call all down to timing

Zoe Hendriks gave the rescue helicopter crew a carrot cake at the unveiling. Photo / Richard Robinson

Lying upside down with her scalp gashed open and an arm pinned under her friend's car, 15-year-old Zoe Hendriks came within minutes of not getting the help she so seriously needed.

The Westpac rescue helicopter was on its way - but it could just as easily have been at one of two other emergencies called in about the same time.

But the addition of a second helicopter, unveiled on Queens Wharf yesterday, will mean the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust can cope with twice the number of missions it now handles.

Zoe was a front-seat passenger in a friend's BMW with three others on the Hibiscus Coast Highway during the school holidays when the car skidded around a corner and slid for about 37m before landing on its roof.

The group had been in Orewa and were going home to Waiwera.

Zoe, an Epsom Girls Grammar boarder, was wearing a seatbelt, but landed with her arm out of the window, with part of the car crushing it, and had to be cut free.

The helicopter took her and a friend to Auckland City Hospital.

The other teenagers, who were less seriously hurt, went by road ambulance.

"I remember one of the rescue guys talking to me to check if I had a concussion," Zoe said. "I had to remember three things: his name was Stefan, it was Thursday and his favourite cake was carrot cake."

The teenager had 47 stitches in her scalp. She suffered breaks in her vertebrae, broken ribs and a punctured lung. Her friend also suffered broken bones.

Zoe was in hospital for nine days initially but, after four days at home, was admitted again for six days with concussion. She is back at school four days a week.

Fundraising general manager John Hooper said the rescue helicopter had received a call to a boating rescue in Pauanui and a car accident in Warkworth around the same time.

"If those calls had come in a minute before hers did, she could have been waiting another 35 minutes for us."

Zoe, who thanked the rescue team with a carrot cake, joined about 100 guests for the helicopter launch at which broadcaster Paul Holmes was the MC.

Trust chief executive Bob Parkinson said that last year the existing helicopter flew 577 missions, 13 per cent more than in 2008, and this year had already seen a 15 per cent increase.

The Bolkov Kawasaki was bought from Japan with a $5 million loan. It was refurbished by Airwork NZ at Ardmore Airport with a new engine, gearbox, patient stretcher, oxygen support system, rescue hoist and a night vision goggle system.

The trust bought the current helicopter about four years ago and paid it off with fundraising and revenue early this year.

WESTPAC RESCUE HELICOPTER
* A Bolkov Kawasaki 117 model.
* Cost $5 million.
* Will service about a third of New Zealand's population - with the existing helicopter - in the Auckland region.
* Maximum speed: 300km/h and cruising speed: 260km/h.
* Can travel 1000km at a time.
* Uses 250 litres of petrol, at $300, an hour.
* Carries up to six people.