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Monday, July 7, 2014
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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
Lucky to be alive BY MICHELLE NELSON MICHELLE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
A Dorie farmer is grateful to be alive, after severing a major artery during a routine farming task. Tom Wing was cutting cow collars off on Thursday, when the butcher’s knife he was using slipped and gashed his left thigh, slicing through his femoral artery. In the ensuing 45 minutes, his partner Kelly McCallum, several farm workers and two LIC consultants battled to keep him alive, while waiting for the Westpac rescue helicopter to arrive. “He was in quite a bad way,” Ms McCallum said. “I was in a bit of a flap, but the LIC women were amazing, one rang 111 and they organised everyone. “They elevated his leg, applied pressure to slow the bleeding, and used one of the cow collars as a tourniquet. “Tom’s mum is a nurse at the hospital – she heard a code red,
which is life threatening, had been called through.” Mr Wing required seven units of blood. Surgeons used vein tissue from his right leg to repair the damaged artery before suturing the wound, which was the length of a piece of A4 paper. With a two-and-a-half month old baby to take care off, Ms McCallum said she was just taking it “day-by-day”. “He’s up and down, but generally in good spirits,” she said. “We are expecting he will be transferred to another hospital for rehabilitation in the next few days – either Burwood or Ashburton hospital, depending on whether they have the right facilities there.” Ms McCallum said the accident highlighted safety issues on farms. “We were very lucky there were other people there at the time, and we really want to thank everybody who helped – the workers, the LIC ladies and the Westpac crew,” she said.
Rescue workers stabilise Tom Wing before airlifting him to Christchurch Hospital.
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