KEY POINTS:
The woman crushed under a leaping dolphin has become engaged to the boyfriend who watched her almost die.
Kelly James, 28, and former Counties-Manukau rugby player Dion Lawson were expected to celebrate with friends at a party in Pukekohe this weekend.
The party comes a year and two weeks after the accident which left James unconscious and frothing at the mouth, with broken ribs and pelvis, a punctured lung and cracked neck vertebra.
Chris Deacon, the Westpac Helicopter Trust paramedic who tended to James throughout her ordeal, last night told the Herald on Sunday the engagement was "fantastic" news. "They are just really nice people, and it's really lovely that it's all worked out for them."
Deacon has become close friends with the couple since the accident and was looking forward to attending the engagement party.
"We transfer a lot of patients, but what's different is they wanted to stay in touch with me ... this is awesome news, though."
James and Lawson were holidaying with friends on a boat off the Coromandel Peninsula when a 3m bottlenose dolphin leapt out of the water and landed on her. The devastating injuries left her near death as friends fought to get her to nearby Slipper Beach, where she was collected by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Only Deacon's actions kept her alive.
The couple were not willing to talk about their engagement yesterday and family were unaware of the engagement or sworn to secrecy.
In a women's magazine interview last year, James said one of the first things she asked after the accident was: "Is the dolphin okay?"
She said dolphins were her favourite creatures.
"I adore them, I always will," she told the magazine.
