A 40-year-old man seriously injured his leg while rafting on the Wairoa River.
The Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter was dispatched to the river, about 300m below McLaren Falls, yesterday afternoon.
The Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter at the Te Kaha Medical Centre. Photo: Supplied.
'The location was at an inaccessible part of the river in a steep gorge, so the Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter with the Port of Tauranga winch was required,” says pilot Todd Durham.
'A paramedic was winch down to stabilise the patient, who could not be removed from the raft due to the severity of his injury.”
The patient was winched into the helicopter in a stretcher, along with the paramedic before being flown to Tauranga Hospital for further treatment.
Later in the evening, the helicopter was tasked to Te Kaha medical centre where a seven-year-old boy had suffered from a medical condition that required urgent hospital care.
'He was flown to Whakatane hospital. The helicopter was tasked to this job due to the distance by road to the required hospital. '
1 comment
Lucky fella.
Posted on 25-01-2016 17:42 | By TheCameltoeKid
I was involved in the rescue of a young man many years ago. He was pushed out of his raft above the waterfall about halfway down the rapids and got his foot trapped. The poor bugger nearly drowned. Heli couldn't get in and didn't have a winch so we had to carry the stretcher from the river up the hill to the highway. Even to this day it remains one of the most exhausting things I've done. One of the Schuler boys saved that lads life that day. I still wonder if the prick that pushed him out is still his friend.
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