Whangamata ex-pie salesman impaled by glass shard, narrowly misses vital organs

Brian Parrott, back in his greenhouse just days after falling through two panes of glass and impaling himself on a shard of glass that missed his heart by a matter of centimetres. Photo / Jim Birchall

Seventy-eight-year-old Brian Parrott was in his Whangamata glasshouse getting in some spade work and tending to his crops when unsteady ground caused him to fall through a window and impale himself on a shard of glass, narrowly missing his heart and lungs.

The former pork pie salesman and butcher, originally from Nottingham in the UK, relocated down to Whangamata via Titirangi in Auckland eight years ago after retiring.

Brian featured in a Herald article in 1987, in which he described selling about 1500 pork pies from the butcher shop he started in 1973 after moving to New Zealand with his wife, Bernadette. He got the idea to sell the Melton Mowbray delicacy after being unable to "find pork pie I liked - so, in the end, I went home and made my own".

Fast-forward to last Thursday afternoon, and Brian was digging tomatoes when he fell through two panes of glass, "cutting his rib". After pulling himself off the shard, he needed immediate help, and with blood pouring from his abdomen, Brian walked over to his neighbour's house to raise the alarm and was greeted by an electrician from Pitcher Electrical, who was working at the house.

"He [the electrician- who did want to be named] said, 'Jump in the van, we're off'," recounts Brian, and he was rushed by the man to the Whangamata medical centre after deciding not to wait for an ambulance. Three or four nurses and a doctor attended to Brian.

"They were pushing in cotton wool to stop the blood. From there, they transported me by air ambulance to Waikato Hospital.

"From there, the surgeons cleaned me all up, checked there was no glass, and put me back together. I was told a few centimetres either side, and [the glass] would have cut into my heart. From what they told me, I'm very lucky - I've had a few lives in my time."

Brian thinks the key to getting through a medical emergency is to remain calm and rely on past experiences to rationalise things: "I don't panic, I don't let it worry me."

Brian would like to acknowledge the cool-under-pressure help he received from the electrician and others in contributing to getting him to Waikato Hospital for assessment within 90 minutes of the accident.

"Thanks to Doctor Donna [Berry] and the nursing staff at Whangamata Medical Centre. The staff from St John Whangamata and the Fire Service [Fenz]. Also to the crew and doctors of Westpac Helicopters for the ride to Waikato Hospital, and surgeons N Stevens, Z Lin, the nurses and staff on thoracic and vascular wards, and all the other medics who cleaned me up and made me comfortable."