Save lives with your legacy

As Steve Rastovich sat trapped in the mangled cab of his truck and losing blood, there was only one thing on his mind. His family.

He thought about how they would hurt if he died; how his wife of 40 years would cope without him and what he would miss out on: his son, daughter and grandchildren, the rest of his life.

He drifted in and out of consciousness, hearing the emergency service crews at the scene discuss how to get his damaged body out of the cab, hearing the blades hit metal as they started to cut the vehicle apart.

Then he heard a sound he will never forget: a helicopter coming closer, then landing.

He couldn’t feel much at the time, but he remembers relief, and a lot of hope.

Steve’s crash happened on 22 February 2010.

While driving at 90km/ph the front right tyre of his truck exploded as he took a corner. As he lost control, Steve had to choose between veering left into a bank, or into the path of oncoming traffic and over a drop of nearly 100m. He chose the bank and on impact, the truck crumpled like a concertina.

‘I couldn’t get out, I was jammed up,’ Steve recalled.

‘I thought of my wife, my family, what could be and what might not be, that was the biggest thing … at the time I didn’t feel much pain, it was just the things going through my head. That was the worst part.’

It wasn’t Steve’s first crash; 45 years ago he crashed his truck into a pole which was holding up a shop verandah. His left leg had to be amputated.

That didn’t stop him; the avid truckie was back behind the wheel as soon as he could manage it and went on to drive for a transport company in South Auckland.

But sitting in the cab in 2010, he thought his time was up.

‘I was trapped in there for about 90 minutes. That’s a long time to be sitting in there,’ he said.

‘A lot goes through your mind, your family – I wasn’t concerned about losing my other leg, I just wanted to get out of that bloody thing.’

When they got Steve out of the truck he had lost a lot of blood and was losing more rapidly. Then in came the crew of the Auckland & Coromandel Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

‘Dave, the paramedic kept me together, he stabilised the leg and bound it straight,’ Steve said. ‘He got me stable enough to be transferred to the helicopter and then we went through to Middlemore Hospital,’ said Steve, who earned the nickname ‘Hoppy’ after his first accident.

‘The flight was really rough, it was like boom, boom, boom the whole way but I was thankful to be in there.’

Steve was given 17 units of blood to replace what he’d lost and underwent surgery to repair what was left of his right leg, which was hanging by, in his words, ‘a flap of skin.’ His hip and knee were reconstructed and he’s got steel rods the length of his limb.

Steve has had 15 operations since the crash and while he has ongoing pain issues, he has no complaints. He can walk, but most importantly, he’s alive to tell his tale.

His wife, Frances, said if there had been no rescue chopper that day, there is no doubt she would have had to bury her husband. ‘Our 19 year old son died in a car accident 23 years ago, so my life would have been absolutely unbearable if Steve had died,’ she said.

‘Without the Auckland Westpac crew I would not have a husband. They didn’t just save him, they saved our whole family.’

Frances said while in hospital Steve was hell bent on three things: walking again; going back to work; meeting the people who saved him to say thanks.

He achieved all three.

‘We went into the rescue base to meet the guys who helped Steve, they didn’t know we were coming but the girls in the office made sure the crew were all there on the day. That was the ultimate; to walk in there and see the guys when he should never have lived, that was a really great thing.’

Because of their experience with the helicopter service, Hoppy and Frances have now become members of the Trust’s Legacy Supporter bequest programme, by leaving a charitable donation in their Will.