Watch NZH Local Focus: I would... rather have a heart attack

If Havelock North's Scott Kelly had the choice again, he says he'd rather have another heart attack than experience a second bout of campylobacter.

The 46-year-old was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital by ambulance during the Havelock North campylobacter water crisis in August.

"The whole ward was just completely Havelock North residents," Mr Kelly said.

"It was a bit sort of, I dunno, like a big nuclear disaster had happened, everyone was walking around with masks and suits and boots and stuff like that on, it was a bit sort of freaky."

Mr Kelly said he spent about 85 per cent of the time he was sick using the toilet.

"I lost a good 9kg from the experience."

He'd had a heart attack earlier in the year.

"If I had the choice again, I think I would definitely rather have a heart attack, that's how bad the campylobacter outbreak was."

Mr Kelly also has ischemic colitis - a condition of the bowel - which makes him susceptible to illness. He wonders if this may have contributed to him getting sick, but, being a "big water drinker" he believes he was bound to catch it.

Finding it difficult to move while he was sick, he said: "It just felt like you'd been run over, struck by a train or a truck really."

He was astounded at the lingering physical effects campylobacter had on his body.

"Your body was all bruised in the hip area and in here in the leg area just behind the knees from sitting down on the toilet."

"I couldn't leave the toilet, I was passing that much stuff and blood. The pain was really excruciating, the pain was like so bad."

The Havelock North plumber is looking forward to the outcome of the government inquiry.

"I'd like to see heads roll or someone be held accountable for it."

Mr Kelly is just one of more than 5000 people whose lives were impacted by the water crisis.

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