Kiwi's miraculous survival story after being run over by a boat while in Fiji

Kiwi's miraculous survival story after being run over by a boat while in Fiji
The day began so perfectly.

Karain Eketone was in Fiji, on a cruise holiday, with his wife Susan to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. It was their first proper break without their four kids and two grandchildren - the water was warm; the sun was shining. Life was good.

"We were having a great time," Karain smiled before his wife quickly teased with a laugh: "Oh he was loving the karaoke."

Karain was also a keen snorkeler and, with a GoPro in his hand, left Susan on the beach while he enjoyed the tropical sea life in a "boat-free" area off the island of Dravuni. It was, in his words, magical.

It reminded him of Finding Nemo, an Eketone family favourite movie, and Karain started filming his own version for his children back home in Hamilton.

"I was pretty keen to get in the water, I was pretty excited. Spearfishing is a hobby of mine, I love the water and that day was a good day, a beautiful day," he said. "I spotted awesome coral fish and was taking nice photos of zebra fish - just like from the movie - and a turtle." 

Karain was about to pop back up for air when he felt a powerboat pass over him. It easily missed so he kept coming up but a second boat, following closely, collided with his arm and head.

The propeller sliced through the main artery and nerves of his wrist and the right side of his skull. Unconscious, Karain slipped under the water, bleeding profusely and technically drowning.

He doesn't remember anything after that but he's been told the people on the boat that hit him couldn't get him out of the water.

Another snorkeler - a fellow Kiwi passenger from the cruise - saw what happened, swam to him and helped haul him, unconscious, onto the boat. They performed CPR, saving his life.

Karain was then raced to the P&O cruise liner, where staff frantically kept him alive, bandaging his wrist and head, putting him on a ventilator, and arranging for a rescue helicopter to pick him up and take him to hospital in Suva.

Unfortunately, a storm was brewing, and the helicopter couldn't land on the ship. Karain needed to be put on a tender boat and transferred to a nearby island to be picked up. He barely remembers a thing.

In the meantime, staff members printed out a copy of Susan's passport and gave it to local children to show to tourists on the island, where she'd been relaxing on the beach, unaware of all the drama. It enabled them to track her down.

P&O staff members then told her to prepare for the worst and organised a five-hour boat trip to take her to Suva.

As Susan was boarding, staff slipped her an envelope. Inside was an $8000 bill for the ship's medical treatment. Thankfully, she and her husband had travel insurance.

"When you hear, 'your husband is not going to make it', it's going over and over and over in your mind. It's a lot to take in but you will do anything," Susan said. 

When she finally arrived at Suva's hospital, doctors were still trying to stabilise her husband. She was told his brain was exposed, and he was losing vital cranial fluid. He had been without oxygen for 13 minutes. Death, she was warned, was imminent.

Susan said she was handed a list of medical supplies - including bandages - that she needed to buy so her husband could be treated.

This lack of resources and expertise left her both worried and horrified, so with the help of their travel insurance company, she organised a medevac flight from Brisbane that would pick them up from Fiji and deliver them to Waikato Hospital, where a leading surgical and neurological team was on standby. It was their only hope.

The flight was meant to leave at 8am but the Fijian hospital hadn't filed the paperwork, so take-off was delayed until 6pm. Before they left, doctors tried to remove Karain's ventilator, saying a local woman had been in a car crash that day and needed it and "she had a better chance of surviving than Karain".

Susan refused as the ventilator was from the ship and was keeping her husband alive.

Then at the airport, a customs officer wouldn't let them leave until Susan paid thousands of dollars for the departure fee - again she refused to back down, eventually reducing the amount to about the normal fee of $110 each.

"I had a bit of a 'discussion' - that's probably the best way to put it - a firm discussion that I was not going to pay that and I felt like he was trying to take advantage of us and it was pretty corrupt," Susan said.

"There might have been a few threats in there and eventually he got to the point and agreed he was being unreasonable. Then he escorted me back to the plane."

The drama continued on the mercy flight home. Medical staff had to keep working on Karain, who was flatlining. His chances of survival were considered "very slim".

But somehow, he did make it and immediately underwent a nine-hour operation with six surgeons - two neurosurgeons, two general surgeons and two plastic surgeons - to repair the extensive damage to his wrist and head. His skull, alone, had been fractured in three places.

Susan was again warned he may not survive and if he did, he may not wake up from his coma and if, somehow, he did wake up, he would likely be brain damaged, paralysed, blind and have a "completely different personality".

Physically, he was already changing. He'd lost 12 kilograms in just a few days.

But Karain defied all the odds.

First, his toes started wiggling to the tune of the Amy Winehouse hit 'Valerie', played by his family in his hospital room. It's one of his favourites.

Then, three days after surgery, he woke up and could recognise his family.

By day six, he was moved to the neuro ward, by day seven he was standing and by day nine he was walking with the help of his physio.

He was, in the words of his specialists, a "miracle man".

"They reckon he will probably end up in a medical journal study - because they don't know how this has happened," Susan said.

Karain had no idea what had happened to him. At best it's all a blur. His last real memory was blissfully swimming underwater, filming a turtle and a zebra fish for his kids.

He was told his technical drowning actually helped him survive - while his artery had been severed by the propeller, the water clogged the arteries, which proved lifesaving.

But while he was considered the "miracle patient", there was sad news: due to the loss of brain tissue, Karain lost 50 percent of his vision in both eyes.

It's part of a condition called hemianopia, caused by stroke or brain injury. It is hoped that therapy will help restore some of his vision - or contact lenses could help expand his peripheral vision field - but it's unlikely he will return to his job as an electrician, his profession for more than 20 years. This was a tough blow.

At 42, he's wearing protective headgear and having to learn the basics of life again like how to dress, wash, walk around, and recognise people. It can be challenging, confusing and frustrating - he's already walked into too many walls and pieces of furniture - but he's trying to keep perspective. He reminds himself he's alive. He survived.

And humour, Karain said, is crucial.

"If the All Blacks coach ever needs me, I am here, ready for the blind-side," he laughed.

He even found a blessing in the next blow delivered: cancer. A scan before his surgery detected a three-centimetre cancerous lesion on his kidney, fortunately, it was caught early enough to be treated.

Karain is now booked for surgery in November to have it removed. He does consider himself lucky - had he not had the accident and subsequent scan, it may not have been detected until it was too late. Positivity is key, he said.

"I think when Susan told me I thought, 'If I was meant to die, I would be dead,'" Karain said.

"Cancer is not a nice word - too many people have been touched by it - but we got it early, any later and it could have been too late".

The operation to remove the cancerous growth will follow surgery to rebuild his skull with a prosthetic in October.

Karain said he's lucky he has insurance to cover the cost of all his treatment. He said if he didn't have travel insurance, he would currently be in a mortuary in Fiji. It's that simple. He encourages people to get insurance before travelling.

Karain and his wife are also now campaigning to have better safety measures for tourists in Fiji.

Many Kiwis go cruising and snorkelling on the islands, but they weren't given any safety advice and no safety buoys were around the area, favoured by swimmers and snorkelers.

"We were recently contacted by another Kiwi, who was honeymooning with his wife on a cruise a few years ago," Susan said.

"They went snorkelling at the same island as us... and a boat ran over his wife, and she was killed. No one should go on holiday - a honeymoon no less - and not come back alive. We don't want this to happen to anyone else. Simple safety precautions will save lives."

Karain and Susan are hoping for a full recovery but for now, they are taking one day at a time. They admit some days are tougher than others, tears are shed and frustration levels rise but Karain said he never stops being grateful - for his wife and family, his rescuers, the doctors and for being alive.

"I don't think it was my time,'" he said.

"I feel that there are lessons that my father in heaven still needs me to learn and there's still work that I have to do. I am so overwhelmed by the prayers and support that has been sent my way. I am grateful. And so grateful for still being here, to be with my family."

So, will the couple cruise again, will Karain ever get in the water again?

"You bet," laughs Karain. "I can't wait. The ocean is my favourite place. I will definitely be back in the water again."

Susan smiles and has the final say.

"I will definitely be on high alert".