Auckland Rescue Helicopter gets record number of call-outs in single day - NZ Herald

A spike in emergency call outs at the weekend saw the Auckland Rescue Helicopter notch up its busiest ever day.

The rescue team were called to take a man to Middlemore Hospital after a boat explosion on Saturday night, one of 10 separate emergencies it responded to that day.

The man was found wrapped in a duvet, suffering mild hypothermia and serious burns after he was engulfed in a fireball aboard his vessel.

This was the 10th call-out for the rescue helicopter on Saturday -equalling the record number for call outs in a single day for the service.

"The only other time we have been tasked to that many missions was New Year's Day 2017," said Lincoln Davies, spokesman for the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust.

The trust's busiest day started with a 2.58am call out to Whitianga, when crew were tasked to help a teenage boy with a deep cut in his arm from broken glass.

"Crew drove to the scene and began treatment...the patient was then transported to Whitianga base by ambulance and flown to Waikato Hospital in serious condition," Davies said.

Then the crew were called to attend to two medical situations on Waiheke Island involving a man in his 50s and a woman in her 80s, who were both flown to Auckland Hospital.

Not long after, the crew helped ambulance with a man in his 30s who was knocked off his bike when a car u-turned in front of him on Tamaki Drive, and then Coastguard with a man who dislocated his shoulder after falling off his windsurfer off Mechanics Bay.

At 3.18pm, another man in his 50s suffered a broken collarbone and abrasions after falling off his mountain bike in Pauanui.

"An Intensive Care Paramedic was winch inserted in but the patient was able to walk out to where Westpac 1 had landed nearby," said Davies.

The mountain biker was flown to Thames Hospital in a moderate condition.

Half and hour later, the helicopter was called to a drowning incident at Goat Island involving a man in his 60s.

"Unfortunately the patient died at the scene, helicopter transportation of the body wasn't required," Davies said.

Two other call-outs on Saturday evening included helping a man in his 20s who had rolled his ankle running in Omaha, and a teenage girl who suffered burns to her feet after knocking over a billy of hot water.

Davis said: "It was a record day on Saturday with our service tasked to 10 missions."