Man hit by helicopter blade.

[corsair67]

Just read this on 'stuff.co.nz'. The rotors can't have been rotating very fast when he was hit!

Man hit by helicopter blade
27 December 2005

A Coromandel man underwent major neurosurgery in Auckland Hospital yesterday afternoon after he was hit in the head by a helicopter blade.


The man had been assisting a party to board a sight-seeing helicopter outside the Puriri Hotel, 14km southeast of Thames, around 11am when he was apparently hit by the rotating blade, TV3 News reported last night.

Eyewitnesses said the man appeared dazed and disorientated as he wandered back inside the hotel, where he lived and worked.

However, it was not until others noticed blood on his neck that anyone realised he had been injured.

A spokeswoman for the Waikato WestpacTrust Rescue Helicopter Service said the man was taken from Puriri to Waikato Hospital by ambulance.

He was airlifted to Auckland Hospital at 1pm and immediately operated on, she told NZPA yesterday evening.

The manager of the Puriri Hotel refused to comment this evening. Nor was there anyone available to comment at Millers Helicopters, the company operating the sight-seeing service.

NZPA was told "everyone is away on holiday".

[Dave Homewood]

Yes, they showed this on the news last night. Dreadful thing to happen. People forget how low rotors can come down when turning slowly.

On the news the girl repoting stated he was hit by the helicopters "main propellor". Never heard it called that before!

[Dave Homewood]

Teletext is reporting that the victim of the rotor blade, Johnny Lowe, 36, was not expected to live through the night on arrival at Auckland Hospital, and his family were told so.

Miraculously he did, and moreso he improved. Now the doctors think he'll recover without any brain damage! Amazing. Here's hoping for him.

I know that the brain injury ward at Auckland Hospital can work miracles, they are fantastic. A mate of mine smashed his skull in when he fell off a bank, and he was expected to die. He not only survived thanks to them, but has fully recovered.