Lying at the bottom of steep gully with multiple serious injuries, there was little hope of carrying the Milton man out without doing him further damage. Despite a 120kmh wind and his precarious position among trees and branches, the medical and flight crew of the Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter delivered him to Dunedin Hospital in just over an hour.
This week, Mr Adams, his mother and one of the paramedics who attended him, talked to Debbie Porteous about the rescue. Here, in their own words, is the anatomy of an accident.
> The patient
It was so quick...
Lyndon Adams (33), Milton.
It was a Monday and, like any day, I went to work. I'm normally a self-employed silviculturist. This day I was working at Hillend (near Balclutha) for a friend on a job in a farm forestry block.
I was breaking out, which entails chaining up the trees that have already been cut and giving the go-ahead to the hauler driver, who hauls them up the hill.
We'd just had smoko and went back down the gully. We were just working our way up the far face when we chained a tree up and moved out of the way. I gave the go-ahead to the hauler driver to start hauling them up.
But one log pulled into the gully and hooked into a root ball (the stump of the tree which had been cut off). Usually a log would have just pulled through (the ball) or knocked it out of the way, but this one got caught at one end.
As the other end started lifting up, my workmate yells: "Run" and I turned and ran with him.
I was yelling into the radio "Stop", but this log swung around quickly, it was just like a baseball-bat effect.
It just missed my workmate and caught me at the end, ramming me in the hip and knocking me down the hill like a rag doll.
To be quite honest I really thought that was it for me. I really could see everything flash before my eyes. I was conscious the whole time. I knew something was wrong, my hip wasn't moving.
The whole time I could wriggle my toes on both feet which gave me a positive feeling knowing, yay, I'm not going to be paralysed, which was the thing that was running through my head. I'd hate that, like anyone would.
It was probably pretty quick, but it felt like an eternity to me, before the chopper arrived.
I didn't really hear it for a start, but one of my mates said: "You hear that mate, he's comin', the chopper's comin'."
It came into the gully and lowered the paramedics down.
They were trying to keep me calm, assessed me, put a neck brace on me and gave me pain relief. They were awesome guys, keeping me calm and reassured the whole time.
My workmates were great, they stood over me to protect me while the chopper came in, because it was so windy sticks and stuff were being blown all over the place. Before I knew it I was at Dunedin Hospital.
The next day the rescue helicopter flew me to Christchurch Hospital where I had my pelvis completely reconstructed. I've got about 10 fractures through my back, four titanium plates and 29 screws in my pelvis, and a nerve in my leg's playing up at the moment.
I was in Christchurch for two weeks and I've been here for two weeks and I'm not sure how long I'm going to be here. I can't stand for six to 12 weeks apparently.
I'm fit, strong sort of person, so hopefully it won't be too long.
I've been really humbled by my awesome family and friends and Milton people sending me cards and text messages.
I can't say enough about the rescue helicopter. It was so quick and I think being carried out - it was quite steep - would have been quite impractical and dangerous.
I've got to take my hat off to the chopper pilot alone for keeping it steady in a windy gully - there were actually trees blowing over further down, it was that windy. As far as the paramedics go, they're just amazing guys. They do that thing on a daily basis for people. It really blew me away to be quite honest.
It sort of shocks you when it happens to you, but to have people like that around you . . . you see these things on television, and you don't think much about it, until when you are put in a situation like that.
• This month is rescue helicopter appeal month. Westpac bank is running the appeal and 100% of funds raised in Otago during the appeal will go to the Otago Rescue Helicopter Trust. Donations can also be made at any Westpac branch, by texting CHOPPER to 4483 to make a $3 donation, by phone on 0900 4 CHOPPER (0900 424 67737) to make a $20 donation, or on the web at www.chopperappeal.co.nz
> The parents
Holiday news hard to take
Lyndon Adams' parents, Alison and Gordon, were in Australia when the call came through that their son had been in a serious logging accident.
It was tea time in Brisbane at our daughter's house when we got the call from one of my other sons. We'd only been there a few days.
Lyndon had said don't tell Mum and Dad, but the boys thought we'd kill them if they didn't, so one of them rang.
It was quite a few hours after the accident. He was in Dunedin Hospital already.
I just wanted to go home right then, but of course you can't.
It was awful and I sort of cried a bit, but that was stupid because you can't do anything about it.
Our daughter rang the airport and we got the next flight to Dunedin, at 10am the next day, but the chopper had already flown Lyndon to Christchurch.
Our oldest son said "Mum, he's in a mess. He's going be all right, but he's pretty awful."
He told us to go home, pack up for Christchurch and we left first thing next morning.
We stayed for four or five days and then my husband came back for work. I was up there longer.
He didn't have surgery for a week. He was in a lot of pain because they had to keep his pelvis pulled apart so it wouldn't start to knit. It was awful.
The support he's had from his family, brothers and sisters and his friends from here has been fantastic.
I worked for the medical centre here - I only retired at Christmas time.
Now, when I hear it [the chopper] going over - it goes over our house quite regularly - I think, ah, somebody else needs them today.
> The paramedic and the pilot
Getting him out
Paramedic Doug Flett was already on a job transferring an intensive care patient from Balclutha to Dunedin when the call came that a man had been badly injured in a logging accident.
We were actually having a reasonably busy day that day.
When the call came in, we diverted to drop me off at Taieri (at the Helicopters Otago base) and the ICU team carried on to Dunedin to drop off the original patient.
A second helicopter was already wheeled out and pilot Graeme Gale, winch operator Kevin Gale and fellow paramedic Andrew Duncan were ready to go, and we were at Hillend in 20 minutes.
The day was extremely windy, with winds in excess of about 120kmh, so it was quite turbulent and a little bit uncomfortable, but still flyable.
The original caller was able to tell us the patient had been struck by a log that was being pulled out on a wire rope.
All the wire ropes had been brought down, so we could get near the patient.
The gully itself was steep, I'd say a good 30-degree slope at least, and full of branches from the logging operation, so it was quite difficult access.
It took a lot of flying skill by Graeme to drop down in the gully in the conditions, but myself and Andrew were able to be winched down within about 20m of Lyndon.
It was clearly obvious he had sustained a major injury to his pelvis and highly likely he had spinal injuries as well.
I remember saying to him at the time: "You've just been hit very, very hard, with a very big baseball bat." I think I got a chuckle out of him.
We knew we'd be there some time assessing his injuries and packaging him for the winch and flight.
He was conscious but in a significant amount of pain. He knew we were there, but I think his workmates were even more pleased to see us than he was.
We were probably on the ground with him for a good 45 to 50 minutes. We did not want to aggravate his injuries, plus he was in a lot of pain and he needed a lot of medication to bring that under control. It really meant very slow, methodical going. He was lying on his side and we had to roll him on his back.
It was one of those jobs that we had to take it slow because there was potential to make things a lot worse.
For the whole duration, Graeme was sitting in the helicopter on a nearby ridge with the aircraft at almost at full power.
If he'd slowed or got out, the potential for the aircraft to be blown off the ridge was quite high.
Lyndon was winched up with Andrew, and I walked out of the gully - which nearly killed me - and met the aircraft on the ridge, where Lyndon's stretcher was being moved inside the machine.
We had a very quick trip back to Dunedin, a smooth tailwind meant we were back in town in about 10 minutes.
I suppose, on reflection, the time we took in the packaging of him paid dividends, because he had significant spinal injuries [but] fortunately, no cord damage.
The next day, the same crew flew him to Christchurch Hospital, so there was the care continuum.
It was one of those jobs where medical and winch training come together in a difficult and awkward setting.
Certainly, from a flying perspective it was challenging, too, because of the high winds, the gully and a lot of mechanical turbulence.
It was a good challenge for us.
