Carri Mead is grateful to those who helped her when she had a heart attack at the Eketāhuna Super Market last month. She says she will be back at her stall later in the year.
“If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t have survived,” says Carri Mead.
The Pahīatua resident doesn’t remember everything that happened on the day last month when she collapsed at Eketāhuna’s Super Market.
And if it hadn’t been for others there, she’s not sure what would have happened.
Carri, who started running a stall at the market a few months ago, says she was packing up her car after the market had closed when she began feeling off.
“I was losing my sight and I felt like I was melting.”
That was the last thing she recalls, until waking up in an ambulance on her way to Palmerston North Hospital.
It turned out she had a heart attack and, although she says she can’t remember feeling any chest pain, one of those who were there confirms that she did.
Carri spent 11 days in the hospital and has spent most of the last month recovering.
She decided to return to this month’s market, not to run a stall but to express her gratitude to those who helped her in those crucial moments.
Ruth Whittaker, who has a handcrafts stall, says many stallholders had already left and she was also packing up to go.
She saw Carri leaning on the boot of her car. While Carri seemed fine, Ruth called out to her and the reply was that she was “feeling dizzy”.
Along with fellow stallholder Debbie-Marie Gay, Ruth realised something was wrong once she saw how pale Carri was and began asking her questions to determine what was happening.
Debbie-Marie, who has had some experience in first aid, recognised the signs of a heart attack. An ambulance was called.
Carri is grateful to those who helped her, saying that, if it had happened five minutes later, she would have been driving back to Pahīatua and the outcome would have been very different.
Since then, stallholders have been asked to provide an emergency contact to ensure that someone can be reached should anything happen. Stallholders are also keen to ensure there is equipment available to provide medical aid.
Super Market organiser Kate Roberts says she is pleased to see Carri is making a full recovery.
She is grateful to the Eketāhuna community for rallying around to help.
Leanne Warr has been editor of the Bush Telegraph since May 2023 and a journalist since 1996. She rejoined NZME in June 2021.
There were 24,318 breath tests recorded in the region in just one month.