KEY POINTS:
William Pike, the young climber who lost a lower leg after being buried in the Mt Ruapehu eruption, will want to return to the mountains, his parents said.
The 22-year-old went into theatre at Waikato Hospital yesterday for the sixth time since the September 25 eruption. His parents Barry and Tracy Pike said the family was preparing for a long road to recovery.
They said he was aware of what was going on but drifted "in and out," due to the large amount of surgery he was enduring.
However, he was not coherent enough to relay the experience of what happened on the night the mountain's crater lake exploded into life.
He had told his parents at one point that he could remember everything, explaining that it had taken rescuers just 10 minutes to get to him.
This drew wry smiles from his parents yesterday, with father Barry shrugging his shoulders.
His mother Tracy said he had explained from his bed that their climb had been a "great" one, that it had been a "wicked" evening watching the sunset.
A prosthesis for his right lower leg was in the pipeline, and his parents felt confident their son would go back climbing one day because it was one of his passions.
The hospital head of trauma, Dr Grant Christey, said William's left leg had multiple fractures, he had a broken knee cap, and his kidneys had suffered.
His renal condition was due to the amount of toxins that were released when the body suffered crush injuries.
Dr Christey was confident the kidneys would recover: "He's a fighter and is very confident about his own recovery."
A fund has been set up in association with Westpac bank to help fund Mr Pike's rehabilitation and recovery, which will include extensive physiotherapy and the fitting of the prosthesis.
