‘It wasn’t meant to end this way’
Life Flight is there for people when time is critical and life is on the line. Each day, four people will need the help of its Westpac rescue helicopter or air ambulance. Ryan Campbell was one of the 1500 people Life Flight helped make it to Christmas this year. Felix Desmarais reports.
Ryan Campbell lay on his back in the Akatarawa bush apologising while his boots filled with blood. ‘‘I was full of apologies that I wasn’t going to to be there to be a father anymore.’’
Campbell’s motocross bike sat wedged, engine still hammering, in a tree nearby.
‘‘I was feeling quite desperate, I was thinking there’s no way that we’re going to get out of this.’’
There was an extra reason Campbell wanted to stay alive: his wife, Larmaine, was seven months pregnant.
Out riding dirt bikes with his mates Scott Houston and Steve Penn, Campbell had hit a lip on the track and accidentally accelerated.
He went straight over the handlebars, then down a bank for about 25 metres. He wiggled his toes – yep, all good. Hands, yep that’s cool.
‘‘I tried to lean forward to move and I just couldn’t move, I was in pain. I was thinking something’s real wrong.’’
Penn got to him in seconds and Houston rode up to the top of a hill to find cellphone reception to call emergency services. Two hours passed as Campbell lay there, unable to move.
His body was broken – he had fractures in his arms, legs and ribs. ‘‘I was looking up through the canopy, through the trees, just looking for a bit of light, I was focusing on that. But when I hit the two-hour mark, I was really cold and I was starting to shake.’’
Campbell later found out he had had arterial bleeding. Bones were exposed. ‘‘I was just bleeding out. My leg was not actually attached anymore. All the safety gear was holding me together.
‘‘I could feel my boots filling up and I thought, well, this is the end.
‘‘I was saying sorry to my friend Steve, say sorry to my wife, sorry that I wasn’t going to be around. It wasn’t meant to end this way.’’
He told his mate to tell his 12-year-old son, Xavier, that he would miss him.
Campbell could hear Life Flight’s Westpac rescue helicopter above, but the chopper was struggling to find the group.
When they did, the next challenge was to find an appropriate place to land.
Somehow, they made it into a narrow ravine to reach him.
‘‘When we saw those red overalls coming through the bush it was just a huge amount of relief that these guys are here to help us, they’re going to get us out.’’
The road to recovery has been long, with many setbacks, and it continues.
But he has survived to meet his youngest son, Asher, now almost a year and a half old. ‘‘I’ve had lots of real emotional times looking back and thinking ‘how lucky am I?’ ’’
He is at pains to point out how grateful he is to all the people who helped him – calling it a ‘‘real team effort’’ to get him on his feet again – but he is especially thankful for Life Flight.
‘‘If that chopper hadn’t have come, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have seen my family again.’’
‘‘When we saw those red overalls coming through the bush it was just a huge amount of relief.’’ Ryan Campbell
Four people need the help of Life Flight every day. Life Flight is a registered charity that relies on donations to keep running. Without it, the life-saving service would struggle to exist. You can help muck in at lifeflight.org.nz/support-us