Girl who was hit by truck ‘a fighter’
The mother of a girl hit by a truck says her daughter is a fighter, but there was a time she thought she would lose her.
Lani Rongokea, 6, was struck near the intersection of Katene St and Park Rd in the Palmerston North suburb of West End just after 10am on Thursday, Sergeant Pete West said.
She was taken to Palmerston North Hospital before being transferred to Starship children’s hospital with a fractured skull, collapsed lungs and internal bleeding.
She later had to have her spleen removed.
On Friday, her mother Debbie Rongokea said her daughter was ‘‘a fighter’’ and had woken herself up from an induced coma.
‘‘She’s always been a little tough that one has.’’
Rongokea and her husband are with Lani in Auckland while friends and family looked after Lani’s three siblings.
By Friday afternoon, Lani’s breathing tubes had been removed and she was breathing on her own.
Lani was walking to school with two of her siblings when she was hit.
Debbie Rongokea said she went straight over to the hospital.
‘‘I was a mess [Thursday], I thought I was going to lose my little girl.
‘‘She was talking. She was trying to talk.
‘‘She was telling me that she wanted to go home and that she loved me.’’
Lani’s siblings were ‘‘absolutely devastated’’, she said.
‘‘I’ve been ringing them every hour on the dot just updating them and letting them know Lani is OK.’’
Rongokea said she wanted to thank those who had helped her daughter.
They bore no ill-will toward the driver of the truck, she said.
‘‘We are thinking about him too and it’s not his fault at all. We would like to sit down and have a talk with him and let him know it’s OK.
‘‘Just to everyone that’s been giving us lots of support [thank you].’’
A witness said Lani went ‘‘completely underneath [the truck] from one end to another’’ in the incident.
City council worker Rawiri Royal, who was at the scene and is trained in first aid, went to help Lani after seeing other bystanders pull her off the road.
‘‘I took over and put her in recovery position.
‘‘The ambulance was here in less than five minutes – at least it didn’t feel like longer.’’