Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2018
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22 hours stranded Woman wishes she had worn her medical alarm Emily Ireland It was a windy day in Featherston last month when 90-year-old Rhona Fraser was knocked off her feet at her rural property. She was stranded for almost 22 hours, painstakingly bumshuffling her way home to get help. But she never quite made it back inside. Rather, she owes her life to a chance delivery of home kill sausages but says she would have been fine if she had been wearing her medical alarm. Now, she is urging others to wear their alarms at all times, just in case. Rhona was the first woman after World War II to gain her private pilot’s license, and to fly solo in a tiger moth from the Wellington Aero Club. She also established the New Zealand Association of Women in
Aviation 58 years ago to support fellow flyers. And it seems Rhona also enjoys flying solo through life, opting not to wear either of her two medical alarms, one for her neck and another for her wrist. “I’ve never had them on.” All that will change now though, she said. It was 2.30pm on Saturday, July 21, when Rhona was knocked over by the wind outside. She had been feeding her cows. “That’s when I heard the wind coming. “I was hoping to get inside before the wind got to my area. “I staggered around
fighting against it, but finally I couldn’t keep my footing, and down, bang I went.” She said it didn’t matter what she had tried to do, she just couldn’t get back up. “I tried using a farm gate to help me get up – but I couldn’t get up. She knew she would have to climb under the gate to get out because she couldn’t get up to open it. “I wriggled and squeezed, and I got under the 12ft five barred gate and then I finally got to the car port at 6pm at night by shuffling on my bum.” Once in the car port, Rhona tried grasping at things around her to pull herself up. “I tried and I tried to use the springs on the trailer; I tried to use my Continued on page 3
Featherston’s Rhona Fraser, 90 is recovering at Wairarapa Hospital. PHOTO/EMILY IRELAND
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