Paramedic’s memories trigger crash survivor’s raw emotions
It is a shock to be told your survival in a car crash nearly 33 years ago has surprised an ambulance officer who attended the scene.
Former paramedic Gavin Marriott remembers my near fatal 1986 car crash well, despite having attended thousands of similar scenes over his career.
I was not his patient on that fateful day in Lower Hutt so he feels free to talk about what he saw after my car was hit head-on while stopped mid-turn at an intersection.
The memories came flooding back recently after reading an article I wrote about the crash as part of a series on crash survivors.
‘‘I remember it very explicitly, it stood out,’’ he told me, adding that the unusual scene, outside the Avalon TV studios, and my mangled red Austin Healey-Sprite stuck in his mind.
Marriott, working for the Palmerston North Hospital Board Ambulance Service at the time, had just finished a job in Lower Hutt when he heard the call about a serious crash near the studios.
When he arrived he could see I was a mess. My veins had collapsed and getting a drip in was proving difficult.
‘‘You were a very sick puppy. I’m surprised you’re alive.’’
He added that being in shock and badly trapped in a vehicle with multiple injuries can lead to the release of toxins in the blood and internal bleeding which can be fatal.
‘‘You can thank the Wellington Free Ambulance officers for saving your life.’’
Apparently they had more sophisticated equipment than other areas.
‘‘If you had crashed in Christchurch, Southland or South Canterbury you would not have survived.’’
Marriott said a fire crew took about an hour to cut me out of the vehicle. Then about a dozen people stretchered me to the ambulance carefully so as not to disturb what turned out to be two broken legs, a smashed kneecap, and a broken sternum and collarbone.
The emergency service crews were surprised there were no skid or brake marks because usually if someone made a mistake they would brake as soon as they realised what they had done.
The absence of marks led Marriott and the others to deduce it was a medical event that caused the car to be in such a precarious position causing the crash when an oncoming car hit it.
For years I had thought it was my fault until a few years ago when a friend suggested it wasn’t. Now I feel vindicated.
Learning all this information so long after the crash caused an unexpectedly emotional reaction. Maybe because I can’t imagine being dead or not having had two children or maybe its regret that I haven’t lived the best life I could have.
But at least I’ve had the priceless gift of another chance when so many other people don’t get that opportunity.