Eruption victim says ‘thank you’
A Whakaari/White Island tour guide burned in the fatal eruption last month has thanked people for their support in a message written from his hospital bed.
Whakata¯ ne teen Jake Milbank suffered burns to 80 per cent of his body when the island erupted on December 9, killing 20 people – two of whom are still missing.
The 19-year-old was taking a tour as a guide for White Island Tours and was among those rescued by a White Island Tours boat skippered by Paul Kingi.
This week Milbank posted his first message of thanks to the Givealittle page that has raised $139,385 for his recovery.
‘‘To everybody who has been supporting me I would like to say a big Thank You. We are grateful for the kind donations received through the Givealittle page and I am enjoying reading the awesome messages and comments that have come, they have really helped me,’’ the post reads.
‘‘Now that my fingers are no longer bandaged, I have been able to use my iPad to catch up with my friends.’’
Milbank, who was initially in a special pressurised and temperature controlled pod while he underwent treatment for burns, has recently been moved from intensive care at Middlemore Hospital to the National Burns Centre.
‘‘This is a big step in my road to recovery. So far I have had 14 visits to theatre – sometimes the surgeons are grafting parts of my body and other times they are changing my dressings and checking out the progress of the work they have done.
‘‘Thank you so much for your kindness – it means a lot to me.’’
Mum Janet and dad Steve have been by his side at the hospital and are grateful to all those involved in the rescue and treatment of their son. They recently told the Whakatane Beacon that they wanted to thank the community, the hospital staff at Whakata¯ ne and Middlemore hospitals, the helicopter pilots and the White Island Tours crew.
‘‘Just a big thank you for the amazing job they did getting them off the island, it pretty much saved their lives,’’ Steve Milbank said earlier.
He said he believed the tour boat skippered by Paul Kingi turned around and headed back to Whakaari/White Island after the eruption.
‘‘They were just five minutes away from White Island; they turned around and came back and got everybody off that they could . . . The helicopter pilots did an amazing job too, getting everybody out of there.’’
He said they were fortunate the crews were able to save so many people before concerns about health and safety shut the operation down later that evening. ‘‘Any delays in getting [Jake] off the island . . . that would have been it.’’
The eruption off the Whakata¯ ne coast killed 18 people, with the bodies of tour guide Hayden Marshall Inman and Australian teenager Winona Langford yet to be recovered.
‘‘Now that my fingers are no longer bandaged, I have been able to use my iPad to catch up with my friends.’’
Jake Milbank