Injured man begs ride for surgery

WOUNDED: Masterton father Jared Renata and son Jahroam, 6. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Masterton sickness beneficiary Jared Renata was stunned when Wairarapa Hospital staff told him to find his own way to Lower Hutt for emergency surgery after he partially severed his left thumb.

Mr Renata said his six-year-old son Jahroam was similarly treated at the Masterton hospital when he tore open his thumb about a year ago. He was then told he had to take his boy to the Hutt Hospital Burns and Plastics Unit at his own cost, Mr Renata said.

"I didn't think they would say the same thing to me as well. The bone was showing in Jahroam's thumb but I thought my injury was worse. The top of mine was completely gone - destroyed."

Mr Renata had injured himself while splitting log rounds using a hydraulic machine soon after 9am last Friday. He had slipped on a piece of wood and thrown his hand out to steady himself, he said, instead severing the tip of the digit near the first joint on the splitter blade.

A neighbour drove him to hospital, where his injury was examined and x-rays taken. Mr Renata was bandaged, given painkillers, and told to go to Hutt Hospital. He was dumbfounded.

He told the medical staff he expected an ambulance would take him, as the trip was urgent and he had no funds.

"The doctor said 'nah mate, we can't do anything for you here'. They said if I didn't go I would catch an infection in the bone.

"They told me they didn't have the resources. They said I should ask my mother, or go to Work and Income," he said.

"It was like they were telling me to hitch a ride without a thumb but they used technical words. It was shocking."

Mr Renata said WINZ gave him a non-recoverable grant of $60 to fuel his family vehicle, which his partner Waitai Morete drove to Lower Hutt.

A similar grant paid for his son's travel to the specialist unit a year earlier, he said, but he was not advised at Wairarapa Hospital about his eligibility, or otherwise, to claim help through the Ministry of Health National Travel Assistance scheme.

Mr Renata and his partner arrived at Hutt Hospital about 2.30pm and he was wheeled in to the operating theatre about 4pm, he said.

He must again travel to Hutt Hospital for treatment on Monday, he said, and any further surgery will depend on the skin grafts taking or "they might have to cut off the whole thumb".

Wairarapa DHB spokeswoman Jan McLaren said the injury to Mr Renata was caused in an accident and ACC covered the costs of travel for treatment during the first 24 hours after the injury was received.

He was consequently ineligible for National Travel Assistance.

It was usual for people with injuries like Mr Renata, and his son last year, to be told to arrange their own travel if treatment elsewhere is needed.

"This is consistent with an assessment of clinical condition and hospital protocol. Transfer decisions are made around patient condition and support available. In this case the situation was not critical and the patient did not require a hospital transfer by ambulance or helicopter."

Mrs McLaren said Mr Renata had been handed an ACC form to claim the travel and the same procedure was followed at health boards throughout New Zealand.

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