A heavily pregnant woman was being taken by ambulance to hospital with a heart attack when the driver also suffered a cardiac arrest.
Eight months pregnant Kirstin Epiha, from Muriwai, West Auckland, went to Waitakere Hospital with severe chest pains on Easter Friday. Doctors realised the married mum-of-two was having a heart attack and transferred her 18km to Auckland City Hospital.
Epiha, 41, said she passed out towards the end of the journey. When she woke at hospital, she was told heroic St John driver Peter Boyce had been admitted to the same ward after he, too, suffered a heart attack but manfully kept driving.
"I was a bit out of it", said Epiha, "but I was aware the lights and siren were on and he was travelling pretty fast.