A driver fleeing police crashed into a Gisborne home, injuring a woman who was sitting at the table having dinner. Photo:
A woman is on life support after being hit by a car while she was inside her kitchen, sitting at a table eating dinner.
Doctors are now trying to wake the seriously injured transport engineer from an induced coma after a vehicle fleeing from police ended up ploughing through a wall of her Gisborne home last Wednesday.
The woman has had four different surgeries and remains unconscious in the Waikato Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
"All I want is for her to talk," her partner told the Herald.
"I have not been able to sleep since this happened."
The injured woman's landlord called the man, who did not wish to be named, soon after the crash to tell him his partner was in hospital.
"I rushed from Hamilton to Gisborne. I drove the same night to be by her side.
"She was able to speak at that time. She told me she was having dinner, sitting on the other side of the table when the car crashed through the wall of the house."
Even though the woman had no external injuries, internally her abdomen had been seriously injured, he said.
"She was feeling a lot of pain in her abdomen and spewed out blood. The doctors at Gisborne Hospital admitted her after running scans and checks. They discovered her duodenum had been split."
Doctors in Waikato Hospital were optimistic about her recovery, he said.
"They will try to wake her up today, slowly disconnecting machines. She still has difficulty breathing on her own."
Originally from India, the woman had no family in New Zealand, and her partner was her only support.
"I did not want to hide anything from them. Her family are in India. I know her mother very well. I told her everything."
The man said he was angry and upset with the circumstances surrounding the horror event.
"A home is a place where you feel safe and not where a car ploughs through the wall.
"I am still angry about it."
He said the woman's overseas-based family was dependent on him for information.
"They are pretty upset, especially her mother. She cries every day on the phone saying this should never have happened."
The injured woman's employer, GHD New Zealand Asia Pacific, said the company was very saddened to hear of the accident involving one of their workers in Gisborne last week.
"Our thoughts go out to everyone involved," said executive general manager Van Tang.
"We are doing everything we can to ensure our colleague and their family are fully supported."
A police spokesperson said on 11 January at 8.40pm a vehicle fled after sighting police.
Officers followed the vehicle and did not activate lights or sirens.
"The car collided with a house on Tyndall Rd, Kaiti, and one person was injured.
"The person injured was a resident of the house and was transported to Gisborne Hospital with serious injuries."
The driver of the car - a 37-year-old Gisborne man - was uninjured and taken into custody at the scene, the spokesperson said.
He was charged with reckless driving, failure to stop for police and wilful trespass.
He appeared in Gisborne District Court on 12 January and is due to reappear on 1 February.
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.