Burns victim returns favour
ARTIST Zelda Bruce will never forget the relief she felt when the helicopter paramedic told her: ‘‘Just hang on, I’m going to give you the good stuff.’’
Her face and upper body had been engulfed by flames from an accidental petrol explosion during the renovation of her Wairarapa property in 2008.
The scars will be with her for life, but that has not stopped her being forever grateful to her rescuers.
And now she is keen to return the favour through an auction of her work.
‘The fire brigade knocked on the door and they were all men . . . I was really embarrassed to come out of the shower, as I would have to be topless. But they just laughed and said: ‘‘We’re all married men’’.’
Zelda Bruce
Recalling the accident, she said: ‘‘What made it really bad was I was wearing synthetic clothes. So I couldn’t get the flames on my body to go out. I was rolling around and in the end went to the shower and just jumped in.
‘‘At that stage, I didn’t really realise how severe my burns were. I think it was because I was in such a state of shock.
‘‘The fire brigade knocked on the door and they were all men. A big part of my burns were on my chest, my arms, my neck and my face so I was really embarrassed to come out of the shower, as I would have to be topless.
‘‘But they just laughed and said: ‘We’re all married men here’.’’
Bruce had suffered lifethreatening burns and needed to be taken urgently to the special burns unit at Hutt Hospital. It was during the rescue helicopter journey to hospital that the severity of her injuries hit.
‘‘We were midair and my body went into hypothermia and I was in the most excruciating pain.’’
That was the moment the paramedics gave her a dose of ‘‘the good stuff’’ and reassured her. ‘‘The rest of that helicopter trip I was gone with the fairies.’’
The burns unit put her into an induced coma for two weeks. ‘‘When I woke up, I was all bandaged. They had already done skin grafts so they had taken all the skin off my legs to patch me up. About 60 per cent of my body was bandaged up.’’
Six years later, she has been through numerous reconstructive surgeries and treatments, but the scars remain. ‘‘It’s not just about the looks, it feels as if I have a tootight jersey on.’’
While she is grateful to everyone who helped her during her six-year recovery, she particularly credits the Westpac rescue helicopter.
‘‘If it wasn’t for the helicopter that got me to the medical attention I needed, I don’t know if I would have survived.’’
To commemorate her last operation at the end of last year, she created a mosaic urn from the shattered pieces of an old one.
The New Leaf artwork is being auctioned on Trade Me to raise money for Life Flight Trust, which operates the helicopter. The auction closes next Sunday, and Bruce hoped to raise several thousand dollars – the equivalent of one rescue trip – for the charity.
‘‘I want to make sure I can contribute a tiny little bit so the helicopter can stay in the air and be there to help other people.’’