Awake, not a wake
After suffering a major heart attack, slipping into a week-long coma and flatlining on his hospital bed twice, youth suicide prevention worker Zion Tauamiti got as close as possible to his own funeral without having died.
Zion Tauamiti feels like he attended his own funeral without even having to die.
The Christchurch youth-suicide prevention worker always wondered who would show up for his service. After suffering a major heart attack, slipping into a weeklong coma and flat-lining on his hospital bed twice, Tauamiti got as close as possible to finding out.
His mother’s Heathcote Valley living room is a shrine to the messages of support from every corner of the community, from grief-stricken students whom he supported, to All Blacks and international churches.
On the wall is a hand-coloured Batman canvas – Tauamiti’s favourite superhero – made by youth he’d helped and, dozens of cards fight for a spot with well wishes for his youngest sister, Anastasia, who had surgery for a pituitary gland tumour just days before his heart attack.
‘‘It’s like he thought ‘I see your tumour and raise you one,’ ’’ 24-year-old Anastasia Tauamiti said.
Zion Tauamiti, 33, was nil-bymouth at private hospital Forte´ Health awaiting surgery on a torn bicep on June 5 when he sneaked a few jetplane lollies.
He was given an antibiotic and told to go home when he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed metres from the nurses’ station. After CPR and ‘‘one big shock’’ with a defibrillator, he spent a week in an induced coma in intensive care at Christchurch Hospital.
Tauamiti has vague memories of waking to his niece’s face. He said it ‘‘honestly felt like I was having a sleep . . . I woke up and I’m still in a hospital. I was making jokes straight away – I’m a jokey guy so everyone was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he should have just stayed asleep.’ ’’
The cause of his heart attack is still unknown but may be related to stress, he said.
His recovery will be slow, with at least six months off work and no driving. Fluffy dressing gowns and scuffs have replaced gumboots as his everyday wear.
Tauamiti is no stranger to hospitals. He spent hours in wards promoting music as a healing tool, once playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star for five hours to a critically ill girl.
Nearly 4000 people followed the youth worker’s journey via a Facebook group, Zion’s Healing Song. All Blacks Jack Goodhue, Sonny-Bill Williams, Ngani Laumape, Ryan Crotty and Anton Leinert-Brown sent a video of encouragement, and prayers from around the world wished him luck.
Tauamiti credited the quick work of staff and the power of prayer and support from the community and New Life Church for his recovery and, with his mother, visited nurses at Forte´ Health yesterday to thank them.
‘‘It was quite beautiful actually to see them all in one room and know that they were the people who saved my life.’’