‘This thing saves lives’: staunch supporter of Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust

The Trust Tairāwhiti Eastland Rescue Helicopter off on another mission. An annual charity golf tournament is being held at Poverty Bay Golf Club on Friday to raise funds for the Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust. Picture by Liam Clayton

Neil Kitchen has for years played in the Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust’s annual Charity Golf Tournament.

Not with any success, he admits, and not thinking he would ever use the rescue service himself.

That was until December 2019 when he was on the Poverty Bay Golf Club’s Awapuni Links playing in a tournament to raise funds for another organisation.

It was about 11am on a glorious 30-degree Gisborne days when Neil hit a shot on his fourth hole of the round.

“As the ball landed on the green I felt this pain like I’d pulled a muscle in the back of my shoulder . . .a pain that just wouldn’t go away,” he said.

“Then I started to feel nauseous. One of the other players said ‘I know what that is’, and chucked all the drinks out of the refreshments cart, chucked me in and took me back to the clubhouse.”

Neil’s friends called an ambulance but when it hadn’t arrived after half-an-hour, partner Gaylene Munro, who he’d called earlier. drove him to Gisborne Hospital’s ambulance bay.

“That leads straight into the Emergency Department, where they took one look at me and said ‘yes sir, you are having a heart attack’,” he said.

“That’s not something I ever thought would happen so it came as quite a fright.

“I’d never had any serious health problems and was walking five kilometres a day, so nobody has really been able to work out why it happened.”

Neil suffered an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) — a potentially fatal form of heart attack caused by a blockage of bloodflow.

“They treated me in Gisborne but said I needed to quickly get to Waikato Hospital’s Cardiac Unit for specialist care,” he said.

“The next thing I knew was there was a pilot and a paramedic standing at the end of my bed saying ‘it’s time to go’, and Gaylene and I were being strapped into the back of a helicopter.”

The crew were flying ZK-HNP, Trust Tairāwhiti Eastland Rescue Helicopter’s new BK-117 twin-engine aircraft — an upgrade from the single-engine Squirrel it had previously used.

His uplift to Waikato made him the first patient the Gisborne-based crew had medivacked out of the region since they had taken delivery of the BK-117 just that week.

“The funny thing was that as a supporter of the trust I was invited to a function held at the hangar the night before to mark the arrival of the new helicopter.

“For some reason I never received the invitation so we didn’t go.

“But I now feel that’s one party I really should have been at.”

More than three years after his heart attack, Neil says he has even more reason to be a staunch supporter of the Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust and has funded equipment from lifejackets to noise-cancelling helmets.

“I’d never even considered that I’d need the service myself but always thought it was absolutely critical for our community.

“There is no point in having a rescue helicopter in a base out of the region . . . time is critical and this thing saves lives.

“I am just so grateful they were there for me in my time of need.”

The 18th annual Eastland Helicopter Rescue Trust Charity Golf Tournament is at Poverty Bay Golf Club on Friday.