Heather Tervet was first on the scene of an accident in which Mark Somervell lost a leg.
Heather Tervet was first on the scene of an accident in which Mark Somervell lost a leg.
Young Kiwi in US holiday accident alive thanks to a motorist’s quick thinking.
Surgeons are battling to save the remaining leg of a young Kiwi almost killed in a motorbike crash in the US.
Mark Somervell, 21, was less than four months into a working holiday in the US, where he was training as an arborist, when he crashed off his Kawasaki ZX6 motorbike on the Angeles Forest Highway, in Los Angeles, last Saturday and slid into a metal barrier.
His left leg was severed and his right was partially cut through.
It was only the quick thinking of a motorist who found the badly-wounded former Aucklander on the roadside and forest rangers who applied first aid that stopped him bleeding to death.
A team at Pasadena's Huntington Memorial Hospital is working to save his right leg. His father, Peter Somervell, revealed they were using cutting-edge surgery using nerves from the left leg.
"They've reattached a mangled, severed leg and put it back together," Somervell told the Herald on Sunday from his son's bedside. "We are amazed."
He said it had been "touch and go" whether doctors would amputate the right leg but there were signs surgery had been successful.
"By the time we got here, the muscle had not died, the bloodflow was going - he had a pulse in the heel - and when he woke up he had sensation in his right foot."
The Nelson-based pastor and his wife, Francelle, arrived at their eldest son's bedside on Monday.
Mark Somervell's motorbike.
He said it was a miracle their son was alive. "There are a number of what could only be called miraculous things that happened after Mark's crash which prevented him from bleeding to death," he said.
His son was travelling along a poorly maintained canyon road to look at new accommodation. "We don't know if he slid on debris or if someone in front of him braked and he swerved to avoid them," he said.
"He slid into a barrier very close to the road. His legs hit a vertical metal post first and severed the left leg and took half the right leg as well. So he was basically propped up against this barrier with his legs pretty well taken off."
Somervell said his son would have bled out quickly had it not been for passing motorist Heather Tervet, who made sure his son did not fall into unconsciousness.
Tervet told the Herald on Sunday that she expected the worst when she saw Mark slumped against the barrier.
"I didn't know what condition he was in but my first instinct was to get out of my car and race up," she said.
"I couldn't believe my eyes. It was very hard to stomach with exposed bones and cut flesh but your first instinct is to be with that person.
"I just knelt down by him and consoled him, asking him, 'Please, listen to my voice'."
She had to flag down a passing motorist to raise the alarm.
Somervell said forest rangers applied tourniquets and arranged for a helicopter to fly Mark to hospital.
Mark was given 18 units of blood during his first 24 hours in hospital.
Tervet had since visited Mark in hospital and said they shared a unique bond. "I can't even explain the type of feelings I have for this kid - unreal - I'm going to be there for him forever," she said.
Somervell praised his son's employer, arborist Daryl Monson, who stayed by Mark's bedside until his family arrived in America. He said the family had found strength from prayer support shown the world over and the generosity of people giving through crowd funding pages.
His son was now talking and in good spirits as he became aware of the nature of his injuries.
"He is slowly coming to terms with the loss of his left leg, which was very hard for him. However he brightened when he heard about getting a prosthetic that enables him to surf."
