“Otherwise I don t know where I d be. I dodged a bullet.” When Parker arrived Kahukare was on the living room floor leaning on the sofa and her face was “half up, half down”. He knew it was a stroke immediately. Parker called the ambulance, which took 12 minutes, and Kahukare was assessed at the Taranaki Base Hospital stroke unit with virtual input from neurosurgeons in Auckland and Wellington. They discovered a clot on the outside of her brain, and she was flown via helicopter up to Auckland Central Hospital that night for surgery.
ANDY JACKSON/Stuff
Kahukare has been recovering well with Parker taking good care of her.