Boy, 6, thanks rescue crew
A New Plymouth family have thanked the Taranaki Community Rescue Helicopter for giving them another Christmas together.
Mason Bellamy, 6, had been riding his small children’s motorbike around his Frankley Rd back yard on a Sunday afternoon when he hit a rut. He was jolted at full force into the handle bars before falling to the ground and trapping his leg under the bike.
‘‘I managed to get out,’’ he said six weeks later as he was recovering at home.
At first, his only physical injury was a bruise. It wasn’t until he was struggling to breathe that parents Brendon and Sarah knew something was wrong.
‘‘First of all I said to him ‘pick your bike up, put your helmet back on and get back here,’ and then I realised that he couldn’t breathe,’’ Brendon said.
It was later revealed that the impact had split Mason’s liver almost in half and fluid was filling his lungs, causing one of them to collapse.
Within 20 minutes the family had made it to Taranaki Base Hospital’s emergency department, where Mason’s life or death condition was diagnosed. The rescue helicopter flew him to Waikato Hospital for specialist treatment.
‘‘It was all about getting him to the right place, to get the right treatment because Taranaki couldn’t really provide it,’’ Sarah said.
Mason had never been in a helicopter before but said he could only ‘‘just look out the window’’ to enjoy the view.
The pilot and paramedics even joked with Mason about making a detour to get him a cheeseburger from McDonald’s in Otorohanga.
Mason recovered quickly in Waikato, with at least one Coke can’s worth of fluid drained from his abdomen, and then returned home the following week.
He has been off school since the accident but it didn’t stop him from popping into the rescue helicopter hangar before Christmas with some cinnamon scrolls for the paramedics ‘‘to say thank you for saving my life’’.
Taranaki Community Rescue Helicopter general manager Andy Cronin said it was a privilege to see Mason happy and healthy again.
‘‘That’s probably our favourite part of the job, meeting patients afterwards. We really appreciate the fact they’ve taken the time to come and see us,’’ he said.