Christchurch quake response
After the earth shook again in February, donations meant Life Flight crews could respond immediately with three aircraft to help. Nurse Kathryn Steel shares her experience below.
News of the quake started coming in thick and fast via Facebook and Twitter. We realised this was a major emergency, so we set up "Incident Control" at the base to establish how Life Flight could help.
At 5pm St John Ambulance asked us to fly 14 paramedics and gear to Christchurch. One hour later we were safety briefing their team and loading huge volumes of equipment in to our air ambulance plane.
At 7.30pm I was deployed to Christchurch for a medical evacuation in an air ambulance. We left with no idea of what kind of patients we were going to collect, how we would retrieve them and in what state the city would be.
We arrived into a ghost town. It was pitch black with police on every corner - the streets were lit only by flashing ambulance and fire beacons. The roads were undulating, so the drive to hospital was incredibly slow and bumpy. There were abandoned cars lining the streets where people, desperate to get to their loved ones, had walked away from traffic jams.
At the hospital, staff scrambled to get patients out of ambulances and onto stretchers so the vehicles could be turned around quickly to deal with the many casualties. Everywhere there was carnage and chaos.
The Intensive Care Unit was seething with patients coming and going. The lighting was dim and the air-conditioning wasn't working, everyone was sweaty and tired. We evacuated two very sick patients to Waikato Hospital and returned to Auckland at 4.30am.
In the following days Life Flight flew a total of 21 patients out of Christchurch as well as many of their family members. We also flew dozens of specialist personnel and a lot of supplies and equipment to the stricken region. No seat or space was left empty.
It was a stressful and challenging time for all, but your donations made a significant contribution to the rescue and relief operation in Christchurch. Thank you.
Find out how to help ensure Life Flight crews can respond when disaster strikes.
