Rescue crew reflect on ‘miracle’ mission
THE youth critically injured after a bullet ricocheted off a cow’s head in a homekill accident was standing 30 metres away when he was struck.
Paramedics said it was a miracle the slaughterman’s assistant made it to hospital alive – he was minutes from death when he was rushed into emergency surgery at Auckland City Hospital.
The 18-year-old remained in a critical condition yesterday after the accident during the homekill of two cows on Thursday at a Helensville lifestyle block.
Westpac rescue helicopter advanced paramedic Marcel Driessen said the rescue was ‘‘miraculous’’.
‘‘I’ve done some missions in my time over the years but this has got to be one of the most incredible, on the brink of death to remaining alive. It was awesome actually.
‘‘Someone was looking down on him and everything was in his favour – it was one of those truly miraculous incredible efforts.’’
Mr Driessen said the bullet lodged in the youth’s chest after ricocheting off the cow’s head – 30 metres away from where he was standing.
‘‘The guy was sort of standing with his hands on his knees, leaning over slightly, the bullet’s come into his left chest just below the shoulder and then gone through and totally obliterated one of his arteries and some veins in there and ended up in the back of his lung.
‘‘It never came out so he’s got a big hunk of lead in the back, or he did. Presumably they’ve taken it out now.’’
Mr Driessen said paramedics arrived to find St John ambulance staff, police and fire crews tending to the victim in a paddock near several buildings.
‘‘The guy was just lying on the grass.
‘‘I think it was a policeman or someone holding his legs up to try and feed what remaining blood he had left in his body back to his core.’’
Ambulance officers had already inserted intravenous drips and given him medication for the pain when emergency department doctor James Le Fevre decided there was little they could do aside from staunch the flow of blood and the best option was to ‘‘load and go’’.
Anything they could have done would probably have worsened the patient’s condition as he had limited circulation and had lost so much blood he needed transfusions urgently, Mr Driessen said.
‘‘We kept the helicopter running . . . and just picked him up bodily and put him on our stretcher, wrapped him up, placed him in the helicopter and flew him straight to Auckland.’’
They covered the victim’s wound with a new dressing and put a defibrillation pad over it to help stem the bleeding, and crewman Dean Harvey leaned heavily on the bullet hole to keep the pressure on. But the patient’s condition deteriorated during the eight-minute flight to hospital.
‘‘He got worse and worse and he was virtually, by the time we got him to the emergency department, non-breathing and almost pulseless and his level of consciousness had fallen to only responding to deep pain.’’
The teen was in the emergency department for only 10 minutes before being raced to an operating room by a waiting medical team.
‘‘Miraculously they go in there, opened him up, found the busted arteries and fixed him up, stopped the flow, filled him up with more blood and he’s so far surviving,’’ Mr Driessen said.
‘‘Another five to 10 minutes max and that would’ve been it for him.’’
The fact the bullet had ricocheted off the cow’s head would have slowed it down and likely saved the teen’s life, Mr Driessen said.
‘‘Had it been going directly, it probably would’ve just gone right through and smashed everything out and he probably would’ve bled to death right then and there.’’
They were focused on the victim, and he did not see the man who fired the shot.
‘‘He’d be quite devastated too I’d imagine, just one of those incredibly freak rarities.’’
He said the crew hoped to be able to meet their patient.