NORTHLAND DOUBLE YOUR GIFT CELEBRATING 30 RESCUE HELICOPTER DONATIONS MATCHED Official sponsors will match public donations up to a maximum of $150,000 YEARS wwww.nest.org.nz fb.com/northland.rescuehelicopter Chris knows he is bloody lucky to be alive In March this year, Chris was the passenger in a goner. My skull had been peeled back, a vehicle being driven by an intoxicated driver scalped, and my right eye was damaged. I an error of judgement he regrets every day since the ill-fated evening. After a few hours of socialising at a local pub"The ambulance was called and then they in Matakana, Chris knew he had been drinking called the Northland Rescue Chopper. They too much to drive home in his own vehicle so prepared himself for a night of slumber in his car but at the last minute took up an offer from a mate to get a ride home with him arrest eight times Something he admits "was not the best idea" In total, over all the episodes, Chris was Moments after leaving the bar at around s unconscious and bleeding very heavily, he says. took a while to get me stabilised as I was so badly injured, and between the crash site and the hospital I apparently went into cardiac without a heartbeat for 13 minutes. idnight, the late-model ute was spinning The medical team on the road that night and in the helicopter, were amazing. The helicopter saved so much time, and really did save my life it allowed me to get to Auckland through the air after the driver mistook a corner at speed. Within moments, Chris had been flung from the car and was lying. dying, on the road just mere centimetres from Hospital so much faster where the vehicle ended up. He had not been wearing his seatbelt, something he said "was another bad move that night. I don't remember anything from the crash for about two weeks. All I know is I woke up in intensive care and wondered what the hell had happened," he says. The rest of the events have been filled in by witnesses at the scene that night I had a fractured skull, and I had lost a lot of many people get a second chance and I do blood on the road that night. Had that ute rolled one ittle bit more, I would have been Months on, Chris can barely believe how much has healed since the crash. You wouldn't think that I nearly died over and over again. I was in hospital for nearly three weeks and then recovering at home. Now aside from a scar on my head, you wouldn't know what I have been through, he says But one thing I do know, is that this accident has given me a whole new chance at life. Not and that is largely in part to the Northland Rescue Helicopter." Official Rescue Helicopter Sponsors Northpower TOPENERGY , Hih ik o Te Puna