News
January 30, 2018
Operating a drone can be a treacherous task.
Just ask one Whitianga man who was flown to hospital with eye injuries after being hit in the face by the machine he was flying.
The man in his 20s was operating a drone in Whitianga around 7.30am on Monday when it struck him in the eye.
He suffered a small laceration to his eye and was flown to Waikato Hospital in a moderate condition by the Whitianga-based Westpac rescue helicopter.
The mission was one of 19 rescues performed by the Auckland-Coromandel Westpac Rescue crew over the long weekend.
On Saturday the Whitianga crew were called to Waihi to assist a baby boy choking on a grape.
The boy had eaten the fruit which was blocking his airway, a statement from the rescue helicopter said.
He was flown to Waikato Hospital in a serious condition at 12.10pm.
At 6pm that evening the same helicopter was tasked to Waihi Beach to assist a teenage girl involved in a non-fatal drowning.
But while en-route the crew were stood down and re-tasked to Omokoroa, north of Tauranga, where an elderly man became ill in a pool.
The man in his 70s suffered a medical complaint in a swimming pool.
He spent a "prolonged period of time underwater", a helicopter spokesperson said, and was unconscious.
He died at the scene.
On Sunday a man in his 30s was flown to hospital after losing control of the motorcycle he was riding. He was thrown about 10 metres into a paddock at Pukekawa, narrowly missing a concrete power pole at 9.45am.
A helicopter crew picked up the patient and flew him to Auckland City Hospital in a serious condition with severe leg injuries.
Back in the Coromandel later on Sunday a woman in her 60s needed airlifting when she fell onto gravel injuring her leg in Colville. She was flown to Thames Hospital in a moderate condition at 3.20pm.
And in Whangamata about 6.50pm a boy suffered critical injuries when he fell from a deck.
He was flown to Starship Hospital in a critical condition.
