Dave Pearson

So, yeah, she said I was pretty sick when she got there and they pumped fluids in me for the next hour or so before my heart would sort of get to some decent rhythm and slow down enough to throw me in a helicopter and send me off to Newcastle.

Yeah, they pumped me full of morphine by then.

The pain had become significant, let me say, by then.

I guess your body's trying to figure out what's going on with all that damage.

And then after a while, I think it starts to figure it out.

So they filled me up with morphine, which was a good and a bad thing.

You know, I'm not one for...

drugs and it sort of made me a bit weird.

But I do remember my daughter turning up.

She had been 45 minutes away, so she turned up before the helicopter even got there.

And, you know, I said goodbye to everyone and thanked them once again as they loaded me into the ambulance and then into the helicopter.

But the helicopter pilot sat there and he said, do you mind if we say a prayer?

And I'm not a religious man myself.

But I said, if it's going to help me get to hospital, I said, I'm fine with anything.

Yeah, so he was a lovely man.

And I could only imagine some of the things that he's dealt with in his career and, you know, whatever people like that need to get him through the day, you know, more power to him.

And, yeah, it was funny because when we landed at John Hunter Hospital, when the helicopter was banking, I had a set of headsets on and,

The pilot said to me, Dave, are you still awake?

And I said, yeah.

And he said, see all them lights?