Andy Macfarlane, who runs his Macfarlane Rural Business in Ashburton and is chairman of Deer Industry NZ, a director of ANZCO, Lincoln University Council member and Ngai Tahu Farming director, is walking and back at work after breaking four vertebrae when dumped by a large wave.
He faced three months wearing a brace but was confident of a full recovery.
“I am feeling very happy and I am refusing to be depressed because I have restricted movement.
“The alternative is much worse. I can walk and I am not stuck in a wheelchair.”
The accident happened five weeks ago, just hours after he arrived in Hawaii for a holiday. Macfarlane went for a swim in the sea with waves about 3m high.
“It turned in to what they call a dumper and the waves grew to two or three times that size.
“The net result of all of that was like a spear tackle in rugby and I was tipped head first.”
Macfarlane heard his vertebrae break as he was dumped and pushed onto the beach.
He realised his back was broken when he couldn’t lift his neck but when he could still feel his fingers and toes he knew his spinal cord had not been severed.
His decision to roll with the wave lessened his injury.
When he was taken to hospital there were three others with broken necks in intensive care as a result of being dumped by waves, a lesson that the sea behaved very differently in Hawaii than in NZ.
Four days later he was back home in NZ and being checked by local specialists. A week later he was back at work.
“I am pretty lucky really. I am feeling very fortunate. I have to spend three months in a brace but my brain is working. I just have to pace myself.”
