Helicopter aids injured farmer

Press, 9 May 1984, Page 1

Helicopter aids injured farmer

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Iroquois helicopter made an emergency flight to a high country farm near Parnassus, North Canterbury, yesterday to pick up a seriously injured farmer. Mr Neville Malcolm Hyde, aged 52, the owner of the Ngaroma property on Ngaroma Road, was last evening seriously ill in the intensive-care unit at Christchurch Hospital. Mr Hyde suffered injuries to the chest and abdomen when he was crushed by a tractor with a scoop bucket about 10 a.m. The helicopter left Wigram Air Base at 11.47 a.m. and picked up Mr Hyde after landing in a clearing near the Conway River. It arrived back at Hagley

Park at 1.20 p.m., and an ambulance took Mr Hyde to hospital. Constable Kirk Newman, of Cheviot, praised the actions of Mr Hyde’s son and three other youths who helped the injured man The accident happened when the group was gathering wood. A tractor with a scoop bucket rolled down hill, pinning Mr Hyde against a tree. The group backed the tractor off Mr Hyde and put him in the scoop bucket before driving back for help. A St John ambulance arrived soon after but it was decided to call for a helicopter because of the rugged road to the farm, which is about 25km northwest of Parnassus.