Bashed parking warden’s code red
Faint staple marks buried in Ken Anderson’s hair are one of the only clues of the surgical scalping he received a month ago.
Anderson, a Wellington parking warden, has spoken about the elaborate patch-up job he needed after a beating while working in Newtown, which left him unconscious with a broken nose and fractured left eye socket.
‘‘What happened was the eye muscles were trapped in the bone, so I was unable to move my eye properly. That’s the only pain I really experienced,’’ he said.
‘‘It was better to free the eye up.’’
An urgent procedure at Hutt Hospital, in Lower Hutt, saw his face peeled down from above the hairline, allowing the plastic surgeon to access his eye socket, Anderson said.
‘‘So, they had to peel my face off, do the work on my eye socket and nose, peel it back again and put the staples on the top.’’
The 58-year-old is still recovering from the daylight attack on April 6. He still has no feeling in the top of his head and part of his face.
After an afternoon of X-rays, Anderson was settling into bed about midnight and about to pour a whisky when the phone rang – he had to get to Hutt Hospital, fast.
‘‘By about two or three in the morning they figured out I needed an operation straight away.’’
He understood the urgency was because experts feared he might lose his eye.
The operation happened about 8am the next day, and only took about 45 minutes.
Small scars around his left eye reveal where surgical cuts were made. He believed his nose looked a bit different, but it had been broken once before in a fight he had as a teenager.
‘‘I’m ever so grateful to the plastic surgeon. He was quite calm and matter-of-fact and he obviously knew what he was doing.’’
Anderson was issuing a vehicle with a parking ticket on the corner of Mein and Riddiford streets when he alleges he was confronted by a man and hit in the face.
He believed the blow forced the muscle in his face into the bone.
He remembered coming to, finding he was on the ground, and thinking of his two children.
‘‘I actually thought I’d had a stroke. I knew that everything was going a bit weird.’’
He saw pairs of legs – strangers were standing around him, which he believed was an effort to shield him.
‘‘I can’t thank the public enough. Without their help I think things would have been considerably worse, because you’re vulnerable and alone.’’
Another warden ran to his side and the members of the public dabbed away blood while he radioed base.
‘‘When you’ve been hit, that’s a code red.’’
He is having counselling and hopes to return to work soon, where he will initially be partnered with another parking warden.
Anderson has been a warden since 2016, and loves it. It gives him exercise, fresh air, and he loves getting to know the shop owners, rubbish collectors and taxi drivers he sees regularly.
‘‘You encounter a lot of great people on the street and occasionally you get to help people,’’ he said.
‘‘A lot of the public probably just see us as punitive moneygatherers, but a lot of wardens are wonderful people.’’
He is already keen to get back to work.
‘‘I love my job, I love the people on the street and doing the best job I can for the city. I want to be back on the streets – today if I could. We’ve got to do it right though, so I don’t get into any trouble healthwise.’’
The Hutt Valley District Health Board was approached for comment on Tuesday but was unable to provide a response.
‘‘I’m ever so grateful to the plastic surgeon.’’ Ken Anderson