NZ woman tells of battle for life

Vanessa Martin is in a Phuket hospital with severed arteries and tendons in her leg. Picture / Chris Skelton

Vanessa Martin pressed her face against the ceiling of her Thai hotel room, gasping for air as seawater surged in through a shattered plate-glass window.

The woman, who is originally from Blenheim, and her British partner, Gary Tait, had been knocked off their feet by a wall of water.

Ms Martin, who suffered a gash along her lower leg severing arteries and tendons, believes she received her injuries when the water blew in the plate glass.

"It was a floor-to-ceiling window that filled with water. As soon as it got to the top, it just crashed in," she said from her hospital bed in Phuket yesterday.

As the water level rose, the pair swam for the ceiling in search of air. Ms Martin's path was blocked by bedroom furniture floating above her head, but she managed to push her way to the top.

She and Mr Tait had just enough space between water and ceiling to tilt their heads back and breathe.

Between operations for her severed tendons, the 30-year-old described the hours of terror that began in one of Patong Beach's most exclusive beachfront resorts, the Impiane Phuket Cabana.

Hearing shrieking in the neighbouring semi-detached bungalow, she looked up to see a trickle of water running across the floor.

She believed her neighbour had left a bath running, but then turned to see 1m of water up against the window.

When the water receded from their flooded room, she and Mr Tait were washed out to the beach pool area. It was here that the extent of Ms Martin's injury became apparent and an Italian tourist used a drawstring from swimming shorts as a makeshift tourniquet.

Then came a second wave - which Mr Tait called "truly frightening". By this time the couple had managed to clamber to a second-storey office area in the resort's main building.

It was a bastion of last resort, and Mr Tait watched as the water poured in, hoping it would not reach them. For those sheltering in the room, there was nowhere else to go.

Again the water withdrew, taking people with it as Mr Tait watched. Those in the room carried Ms Martin down the stairs and placed her on an inflatable swimming aid, which two Thai men used to tow her to Patong Hospital. Mr Tait followed later, feet cut badly by glass smashed in the swirling water.

Ms Martin was transferred to Bangkok Phuket Hospital, where she was operated on by midnight, followed by a second operation yesterday. She is hoping for a medical evacuation as soon as possible.

Ms Martin, who is based in England, was on her way home to Blenheim to visit her mother, Fay Jones.