A Long Road to Recovery
LYNETTE KILMARTIN HAS MOVED FROM WELLINGTON TO TAKE UP A NEW
position in Auckland. Her firm has put her up in the Quest
Hotel, Ponsonby for four weeks while she looks for
accommodation. She has taken a lease on an apartment in Grey
Lynn and is full of excitement at having a new job, a new fl at in
a new city. She has a celebration with friends and when it's
time to call it a day she catches a taxi back to Ponsonby.
Meanwhile, Prasant Nathoo, a young provincial hockey player, is
also having a night out. Just as Lynette is nearing home, he is
beating up a sex worker in the CBD with a hockey stick. The
job done, he has to get away fast so he speeds along Franklin and
Ponsonby Road and the next thing collides with someone. A
woman's head has smashed into his windscreen and she is lying
several metres along the road. Once again he has to get away.
He drives some distance, and abandons his car. The police
track him down later in the day and he is arrested and charged with
reckless driving, assault with a weapon, and failing to stop after
a crash.
This story gets worse. When Lynette stepped out of the
taxi to cross the road she made sure there was no vehicle in
sight. Suddenly several tons of metal hurtled out of nowhere,
knocked her unconscious and she woke up in hospital with her
brother-inlaw holding her hand, telling her she had been hit by a
car and was being rushed to theatre. Permission to amputate
was requested and even though she was drifting in and out of
consciousness she remembers saying, "I don't want you to cut off my
leg". The injury was horrific. Her leg was almost completely
severed from the knee down and was hanging by a shred of
skin. Four operations were performed over the next few weeks
and the leg was saved.
Lynette is now having memory recall about that night. She
remembers lying on the road, smelling blood, looking at the stars
and knowing something really bad had happened. She's learned
since, that the taxi driver managed to wave down a driver who by
amazing coincidence was a doctor on his way to catch an early
flight to Australia. Her lungs had stopped functioning but he
managed to unblock her breathing passages otherwise it would have
been all over.
During her six weeks in hospital metal rods have been inserted
below the knee right down to just above her foot. Amputated
muscles have been semi reconstructed by plastic surgery using the
tissue from the upper part of her leg, but the ankle is setting
into an odd position and must be manipulated back otherwise she may
never walk again. She also suffered head and shoulder
injuries which are healing, but the leg is an ongoing
problem.
Instead of sallying forth to work that she loved, making new
friends, exploring Auckland in her company car, a typical day now
is having a nurse dress her leg, a home carer attend to domestic
tasks, physiotherapy for the ankle, visits to the hospital for
ongoing treatment. She is on huge medication to relieve
severe nerve trauma and her leg has to be kept elevated. The
prospect of being wheelchair bound for eighteen months is not
rosy.
In spite of all this Lynette's medical team can't believe how
positive she's been. Mind you, there are down moments when
she has a good cry then feels sort of okay again. She does
admit to feeling lonely and frustrated because she's at home all
day apart from nursing visits and an hour of home care help.
Avon Lines of Geneva
Health is her helper and Lynette waxes lyrical about
how supportive she is and goes the extra mile to try and make
Lynette's life more bearable.
Being new to Auckland she hasn't a wide circle of friends and
can't do much about it given her housebound situation. She is
aware there are lovely people in Ponsonby and tells how she woke up
in hospital one day to fi nd a man standing in the doorway of her
room. He offered to say a healing prayer. She thought
she was hallucinating and asked "are you really Dave Dobbyn?" Well
it was Dave, who had read about the accident, and called to extend
a hand of friendship and present her with a box of chocolates.
Should anyone else out there care to make friends with this
bright, bubbly and very brave young woman just contact either
martin@ponsonbynews.co.nz or myself deir@orcon.net.nz and one of us
will get her to give you a call. (DEIRDRE ROELANTS)
Source: The Ponsonby News. February 2010