With blood surging out of Blair Marriott’s right leg, it was vital the flow had to be stopped urgently.
Potentially on the brink of death, he yelled at someone to help him tie some sort of tourniquet.
Mr Marriott had just been involved in a horrific motor accident after an out-of-control car drove into him.
Earlier, the 37-year-old Porirua firefighter had finished work at his secondary employment, Woodman Automotive, in Waikanae, on the afternoon of December 3rd.
He was riding home to Paraparaumu on his Honda XR250 motorbike, looking forward to seeing his fiancee and his dogs.
Mr Marriott was following a station wagon westbound in Otaihanga Road.
They passed a rubbish transfer station, a mountain bike park and he remembers looking at the speedometer – it was under 70kmh.
The roads speed limit is 80kmh.
His life was about to change has they entered a winding stretch of the road.
His memory of the crash is vivid.
“I saw the driver of an oncoming car had lost control of the rear of the car.
“She over-corrected and drove into the station wagon in front of me.
“I tried to gas it to get out of the way but she hit the side of the bike head-on with her car.
“I remember the hit – it was very hard and sudden.”
He was flung onto the bonnet, into the windscreen and turned over and over, ending up in a heap in some bushes.
“And then I saw my leg hanging off.”
Blood was spurting out like a fountain. He shouted for someone to try to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, because he knew the flow of blood had to be stopped urgently.
A young man at the scene took off his own trousers and used them as a makeshift tourniquet.
“Whoever did that I would certainly like to talk to them and thank them.”
Emergency services were soon on the scene and then a Westpac Rescue Helicopter airlifted him to Wellington Hospital.
Two medical teams worked on him for nine hours. He received nine units of blood.
The injuries were significant. His right leg was in such a bad way that it had to be amputated from just above the knee. There were breaks in his right arm. His left wrist had turned into “cornflakes” according to a doctor.
A bone graft from his hip to his wrist as well as plates takes place tomorrow. The left leg was shattered and now has multiple plates and screws holding it together.
Fortunately Mr Marriott received no upper body injuries at all.
Paracetamol is the only painkiller he is now taking.
Mr Marriott, a firefighter based in Porirua, said he had received tremendous support when the accident happened and in the days after.
“The biggest heartfelt thanks I can.
“Especially my fiancee Allana Glassner. Without her I would be so many steps behind.
Mr Marriott has a positive outlook and says the accident isn’t going to hold him back.
Getting back on a motorbike was on the agenda as was getting back to work.
Mr Marriott said the driver of the vehicle who crashed into him had not been in touch.
he said the road wasn’t the issue, it was more about the way people were driving.
“People just need to be far more sensible.”
Porirua News By David Haxton
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