Quarter century of saving lives
Neil Scott knows the rugged terrain of Canterbury and the West Coast best from the sky.
The veteran pilot has meticulously plucked patients from seas, ravines, and paddocks in his role with the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. The team has saved hundreds of lives and is responsible for more than 10,000 rescue operations, but it is the chilling details of some of the oldest rescues that are cemented deepest in his memories.
Scott and a team of intensive care paramedics were the first emergency crew to arrive at the 1995 Cave Creek disaster.
A scenic viewing platform in the West Coast’s Paparoa National Park had collapsed, killing a Department of Conservation officer and 13 visiting students when they fell 40 metres onto the rocks below.
Retrieval equipment was not as advanced as it is today, and the crew’s cables were about 15 metres too short. Scott was forced to hover the chopper in a small gap in the bush with mere metres between the whipping blades and the tree line, he said.
The survivors were slowly winched from the ‘‘horrendous scenario’’ to the safety of the helicopter, then ferried to Greymouth Hospital, Scott said. Only four people survived.
In another case, Scott was sent to help a young boy critically injured after falling from the viewing platform of a train. He survived, but a paramedic had to cradle the boy’s head and exposed brain on the journey to the hospital, Scott said.
His experiences were not unusual. Dozens of current and former crew gathered at Garden City Helicopter base last week to celebrate a quarter of a century supporting Cantabrians and West Coasters in their times of need. The celebratory ceremony came on the same day the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was voted New Zealand’s Most Trusted Charity in the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands Survey 2018. Westpac chief executive David McLean said the southern rescue crews allowed Kiwis to ‘‘live the lives they want to’’.
‘‘[New Zealanders] work in forestry, in farming and fishing off shore . . . [They] like to have fun doing crazy and dangerous things out in the bush and knowing we can do all these things and only be half-an-hour from hospital can be taken for granted.’’
Air Rescue Trust chief executive Christine Prince said the standard of care provided to recuse helicopter patients had sky rocketed as technology advanced. About 30 per cent of missions happened at night, something that would not be possible without the advancement in night vision googles. Crews were regularly tested in limited visibility and across the harshest terrains. They had been taught how to escape from a water-logged cockpit if their helicopter plunged into the sea, spent a night in an igloo as part of avalanche training and had bush and water survival skills. Canterbury man Don Lorking vouched for the life-saving help the crew provided.
Lorking was huddled with other fisherman at the mouth of the Rakaia River when an unexpected wave pulled him into the freezing waters below. Rough waves lashed at potential rescuers, keeping them away until the helicopter arrived and winched his exhausted, fatigued and hypothermic body to safety. Though he made a full recovery, the experience still haunted him. Successful rescues like Lorking’s were what kept team morale high, Scott said.