Sam Verrans with wife Pauline at home in Hahei. Photo / Supplied
Sam Verrans with wife Pauline at home in Hahei. Photo / Supplied
Volunteer firefighter Sam Verran had good reason for not turning up to drive the Hahei fire truck to an emergency on Waitangi Day.
The status one critical callout was for him.
"Sam is one of our primary drivers and he's normally one of the first to turn up, but they were waiting at the station for him that day," said Hahei fire chief Ian Carter.
When the next available driver arrived and the volunteers got to the scene, they found their missing man.
"It was a bit of a shock when I saw him, I said: 'What are you doing, Sam?' and he said: 'I'm having a heart attack, mate'," said Carter.
Sam was one of 134 people in Coromandel-Hauraki in the first half of 2021 to have received lifesaving emergency medical attention by the highly trained medic team from the Auckland Rescue Helicopter.
The helicopter arrived to fly Sam to hospital at Waikato, where he had stents inserted.
He was back volunteering with the other 23 or so volunteer firefighters the following Wednesday in Hahei: "They all started clapping when I walked in. It's nice to know you are appreciated."
Sam said he was well-served by the local community ambulance and fire brigade volunteers on that day but knows that as a "status one" patient in the new machine that can provide CPR while in the air his care could not have been better.
"The crew were chatting to me and making sure I was OK. You probably get a better response living here than in Auckland in some situations.
"I was a status one - if you are a status one we always get two ambulances and often the fire brigade and the helicopter if there is one available. The crew on the new helicopter are able to do things that sometimes St John can't do.
"It happened at 2.30pm and I was back in my ward by 7.30pm that night with two stents in place."
The ARHT is fundraising with a dollar-for-dollar appeal, in a spring campaign in which every dollar you give will be matched by major sponsor CMP Construction up to the value of $75,000.
Every corner of the region - including Hauraki-Coromandel - has seen an increasing need for the helicopter service.
"This year is shaping up to be our busiest yet," said Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust spokesman Lincoln Davies.
"There were 717 missions to the end of June 2021, with 134 in the Hauraki-Coromandel region in the first half of the year. Last year, for the whole year, we did 1187 missions total including 217 to the Hauraki-Coromandel region."
Sam Verran joined the brigade after encouragement from the late Russ Cochrane, who was a long-serving volunteer of the Hahei brigade.
The brigade is also currently fundraising the $80,000 needed to kit out a new ute replacing its old unsafe van that it has used for 24 years and purchase equipment to access patients on walking trails.
Sam has lived in the community of less than 300 since moving there from Thames in 2004 and, as a first responder, knows the value of the helicopter after attending terrible accidents involving vehicles and machinery.
"There's a lot of tough things you have to do but we have young and old and all get the job done," he says. "It's the young and old getting together and doing good stuff."
The Auckland-based Westpac Rescue Helicopter is staffed full-time by a highly experienced flight crew of pilots, paramedics and crewmen, and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. In addition, the Pre-Hospital and Retrieval Medicine service complements the team with specialist trauma physicians to deliver the best possible standards of patient care.
