Vet to rescue after Gunn passes out
A Queenstown vet had to come to broadcaster Jason Gunn’s rescue late last month.
The More FM Drive host was flying from Queenstown to Christchurch in the middle of the afternoon on July 22 with his wife and 14-year-old son when he passed out after apparently overdosing on his medication.
When Air NZ staff sought help, Ngaire Dixon stepped up.
‘‘He came around about five minutes before we landed, so it would have been 20 minutes he was quite critical for,’’ she told Central Otago’s Mountain Scene newspaper.
‘‘He was pretty sick, but we managed to get him through it – there were a lot of sick bags passed backwards and forwards.’’
Speaking on his radio show last Monday, 48-year-old Gunn praised Dixon’s actions, saying he was relieved ‘‘she did not decide to put me down’’.
He admitted he was worried it was another heart attack, especially as the last time he passed out was when he had one at a Christchurch gym in February.
He said he had felt unwell before takeoff and decided to take a double-dose of a nasal spray designed to open up his arteries.
He was later told he should have only done one spray.
After a night in Christchurch Hospital, Gunn said he was fine but had learned a lesson about the perils of overdosing on medication.
It is the second time a visit to Queenstown has landed the veteran broadcaster in hospital – early last year he broke two vertebrae after tumbling out of a wheelie bin near his holiday home.