{"id":35460,"date":"2023-04-03T09:59:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T14:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/?post_type=survivor-stories&p=35460"},"modified":"2023-04-03T09:59:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T14:59:02","slug":"hiker-medical-emergency-personal-locator-beacon-nz","status":"publish","type":"survivor-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/survivor-stories\/hiker-medical-emergency-personal-locator-beacon-nz\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiker Unknowingly Saves Herself From A Fatal Heart Attack With PLB"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before the Rescue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Day one of a five day hike through the Whirinaki forest. A beautiful forest with many very old and awesome trees. We had been dropped off by the shuttle and were keen to walk the 4-5km to Upper Whirinaki hut for the night. Only one small hill, maybe a 200m climb. I started to feel abnormally tired but battled on trudging uphill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few stream crossings and we were there. By now I was really tired and very very cold. My throat was burning all the way up to my jaw. I think someone had got a giant straw and sucked every ounce of energy out of me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But nothing that a good nights sleep wouldn’t clear up! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately no. Absolutely zero sleep, just next level burning like little electric shocks through my jaw and mouth. Offers of throat lozenges just weren’t doing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere in the darkness I had decided that there was no way I could hike out of here… not even retracing our steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting Help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My companions were shocked when I walked out onto the grass outside the hut and set my beacon<\/a> off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was so pleased to see that little green light flickering. I had carried the device while on hikes for ten years without ever having to use it but what a relief to have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had gathered up my gear and sat outside to wait. In fifteen minutes we heard the beat of rotor blades…but no helicopter. A few minutes passed and there it was again, this time out of the mist and barely above the trees came the Taupo Greenlea Rescue<\/a> helicopter. Another twelve minutes and I was being wheeled into the Taupo hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Update<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My absolute thanks to the rescue team and hospital staff. Within half an hour my burning was under control and doctors had ascertained that I had had a heart attack. Further tests at Waikato hospital showed blockages so bad I was barely functioning at one third capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I hadn’t had the locator beacon I know I wouldn’t have made it through another day. It made impending disaster a very quick pick up. Nobody was more surprised than me….who knew those were symptoms of a heart attack? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After having a triple bypass I am now happily back hiking!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somewhere in the darkness I had decided that there was no way I could walk out of here… not even retracing our steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137964,"featured_media":35529,"template":"","survivor-category":[17],"terrain":[16],"survivor-event":[136],"survivor-cause":[123],"survivor-rescue":[139],"class_list":["post-35460","survivor-stories","type-survivor-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","survivor-category-hiking","terrain-forest","survivor-event-normal-conditions","survivor-cause-medical-emergency","survivor-rescue-local-search-and-rescue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories\/35460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/survivor-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"survivor-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-category?post=35460"},{"taxonomy":"terrain","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/terrain?post=35460"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-event?post=35460"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-cause","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-cause?post=35460"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-rescue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-rescue?post=35460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}