Newshub presenter Oriini Kaipara off work after hitting head on concrete, sustaining concussion

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18 Dec, 2023 06:34 AM2 mins to read

The Government enters its final week of the year, a shake-up for the capital’s transport plans and 30C-plus temperatures expected across the country in the latest NZ Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

Newshub presenter Oriini Kaipara has explained her absence from work, citing a concussion after falling and hitting her head on concrete.

Taking to Instagram today, Kaipara revealed she wouldn’t be back to work for some time after the accident, which caused two deep cuts on her head.

“I went to mahi the next day thinking I’d be OK to read the news, despite my head still bleeding, swollen, and not being able to feel it. I didn’t know the symptoms … until I sat in the makeup chair,” she wrote.

After being rushed to A&E where she waited more than three hours, Kaipara was told she had a concussion, had her head medically glued and was sent on her way with some Panadol. She said she was back at work just two days later.

“I worked for a month before the symptoms got bad; waves of headaches a day, vertigo, light sensitivity (caused headaches and nausea), memory loss, but the worst was/is fatigue,” she said.

Kaipara visited her GP, who was shocked to hear that she had been working and hadn’t been referred to a concussion clinic.

“He explained the seriousness of the injury and that the only way to heal was to stop and get help,” Kaipara wrote.

She told her followers that they won’t see her back “for some time” as she’s still on the road to recovery.

“I’m not out of the woods, the symptoms are still there but fortunately not as bad as before,” she said.

She said she is feeling “lighter and clearer”, with help from her aunt who specialises in concussions.

Kaipara made headlines in 2019 when she became the first journalist with a moko kauae to present a mainstream news bulletin in New Zealand.

In 2021, she made the move from TVNZ, where she was the first to present the news with a moko, to Newshub.

Kaipara, who is of Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangitihi and Ngāi Tūhoe descent, has had an impressive journalism career of nearly two decades, with years of experience reporting on Māori affairs.