Theewis left her home just before 10am for a regular walk with her dog Bingo. But she only made it about 50m down the road before collapsing.
“I was walking one of our two dogs and I just got to the corner and thought I’m going to faint and that’s the last I remember until I woke up in the ambulance,” she said.
The 63-year-old Lincoln resident suffered a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot blocking an artery in the lung.
“They discovered I had a massive pulmonary embolism which was on both sides of my lungs ... so (I was) very, very lucky to able to have been saved,” Theewis said.
Former lifeguard Caitlain Gell came to her rescue that Tuesday. Gell was walking her four-year-old son William to preschool with seven-month-old daughter Florence.
Gell found Theewis at the corner of Caulfield Cres and Oaks Drive.
“We noticed her dog Bingo running around close to where she was and as we walked up the road a bit more I saw her feet, she was lying on her back.
“Right away I put on the brakes on the pram and asked my son to stay with his sister.”
“Instinctively those things kicked in, and I do think it’s probably because of those ingrained first aid skills,” she said.
Gell assessed Theewis, finding she was breathing but only just, and decided she needed immediate medical attention. She called 911 instead of 111, but was rerouted to New Zealand emergency services.
She then put Theewis in the recovery position, stabilising her until help arrived.
Off-duty paramedics, who had received the alert on their phones, arrived first, followed soon after by the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Brigade and St John.
“It was 9.57am when I called and by 10.05am they were arriving, so the response was quite quick,” Gell said.
She said it was the most serious situation she’d dealt with.
“I dealt with mostly water-based stuff where they always were conscious,” she said of being a lifeguard.
Gell coaches girls rugby at Lincoln High School and helps at Lincoln Rugby Club. She previously coached the Prebbleton women’s team and played and coached at Lincoln University.
“I’m still very active in the coaching space,” she said.
She played rugby for Eastern Canada and spent two years with English premiership club Harlequins.
Theewis said there was little sign of trouble in the days prior to her collapse. She had been to a Pink Floyd experience concert on Saturday and woke up with leg cramp.
“The next day I thought oh I’ve got a bit of cramp in one leg ... and on the Tuesday morning I thought that’s not going away and it’s actually got worse. I wondered if I could actually walk the dog and I thought don’t be silly and ploughed on through.”
Theewis spent a couple of days in Christchurch Hospital and is now home resting, and thankful for those who have helped.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the St John people ... the people at the hospital were fantastic, they were all so caring and compassionate, it was just incredible.”
Theewis works as a relief teacher at Rolleston College and will be on leave until next term.
Apart from a large amount of bruising, she is in relatively good health. She is now taking medication to help clear any remaining blood clots.
