About Us

Kevin Harvey was at home on Friday 27 October when he started to feel unwell. He knew something wasn’t quite right and called 111. Part way through the call he fell to his knees and was struggling to breathe. His 13 year old daughter, Bernadine, had to take over the call.

While Kevin was struggling he collapsed and fell unconscious on the floor. Luckily the Wellington Free Ambulance paramedic crew were just around the corner. They responded immediately, with a second crew only eight minutes away. Intensive Care Paramedic Jessica and Emergency Medical Technician Cheryl were first on scene.

“Once I saw Jessica had arrived I knew Kevin would be in safe hands. Jessica had treated Kevin for his COPD before so I stepped back and let the team do what they needed to do. ” says Kevin’s wife Michelle.

Kevin had pneumonia, both his lungs had collapsed, and he was in respiratory arrest.

As the second paramedic crew arrived so did the fire service. Kevin is a volunteer support officer for Fire and Emergency New Zealand so as the fire crew turned up to Kevin’s house and saw their friend and colleague on the floor the atmosphere turned thick and uncomfortable.

The team knew they needed to get Kevin to Wellington Hospital for further treatment. The Life Flight helicopter was on it’s way and the ambulance crew started to transport Kevin to the helicopter landing site.

On the way to the helicopter Kevin suffered a brief period of cardiac arrest. The whole team, including Wellington Free Ambulance Flight Paramedic Nigel, worked on Kevin for a further 45 minutes outside the helicopter before they could stabilise him to travel.

Once in the air, it’s a quick 20 minute flight over the Rimutaka’s to Intensive Care at Wellington Hospital. After one week in an induced coma Kevin woke up with reduced limb ability and no speech. Recovery started with speech therapists and physiotherapists as well as respiratory and heart specialists. The medical team diagnosed Kevin’s condition as a severe asthma episode, made significantly worse due to pneumonia.

Within a few days Kevin was standing and trying to walk again. The team at Wellington Hospital couldn’t quite believe Kevin’s recovery and neither could Nigel when he popped in to see him. “Nigel came to see me at hospital and stayed for about 20 minutes. He had a big smile on his face when he saw that I was alive. He couldn’t believe it and neither could I. Having him turn up to see how I was doing was just magic” says Kevin.

After 10 days in Wellington Hospital Kevin was transferred to be closer to home. After a few days at Masterton hospital Kevin was ready to go home. “I don’t remember much from the day it all happened. My family are the ones who suffer the trauma post event. They went through it all” he says.

“But I’m here now and I’m still alive.”

Kevin had four months off work whilst he recovered.  Even though resting up and looking after himself was top of the agenda, he also made it his mission to personally thank all those who were involved in his care that day. “To be able to come back and say thank you to the angels who saved my life is pretty lucky”.

A little while ago Kevin met with Intensive Care Paramedic Jessica once again. “We really appreciate hearing from patients as we don’t often see them after we treat them and transport them to hospital. We might run into them in the community but otherwise we don’t know the outcome” says Jessica.

When Jessica asked Kevin how he feels now, “a million dollars!” he exclaimed. “Better than I ever felt, and I just want to say thank you in the biggest way.”