Kiwi hospitalised after being hit by car on Gold Coast
A former Invercargill woman has been hospitalised on the Gold Coast after being struck by a vehicle and suffering a brain bleed and facial fractures, her mother says.
Natalia Hewitt-Bates, 23, is understood to have been hit by the vehicle when crossing a street about 3am on Saturday.
Her mother, Invercargill-based Victoria Hewitt-Bates, said Natalia’s partner and best friend had been by her side at the Gold Coast University Hospital, “so thank God she hasn’t been alone”.
Natalia was a former student at James Hargest College in Invercargill, and was heavily involved in kapa haka at the school, her mother said.
She moved to Wellington after leaving school, and was working in the hospitality industry until November, when she moved to the Gold Coast.
She was celebrating a promotion to assistant manager of a restaurant on the night she was involved in the accident, her mother said.
“They had been drinking, but she wasn’t fully inebriated. She was crossing the road when struck by a vehicle. She was unconscious – they said she was bloody lucky to survive.”
Her injuries included a brain bleed, facial fractures and broken teeth.
Of most concern was the brain bleed, with the full extent of the injury still to be determined, her mother said.
However, Natalia was making good progress in her recovery, and was having daily scans to monitor her brain bleed.
She was speaking to loved ones, with her speech and memory improving daily.
Her mother was “desperate” to travel to the Gold Coast to be by her daughter’s side, but said a cervical cancer battle of her own had left her out of work and short of funds. “I am going insane because there’s nothing I can do. It’s incredibly stressful.”
A Givealittle page has been set up by Natalia’s sister-in-law, which Victoria said hoped would enable her to visit her daughter on the Gold Coast. The funds would pay for her emergency passport, flights and living expenses, and if any money was left over, it would pay for new teeth for her daughter.