Jacob's Story

“My family was told to say goodbye forever…”

At just 16 years old, Jacob Papera had his whole future ahead of him.

He had recently left school and was only nine days into his first job, which would have seen him become an engineer, when a devastating road crash changed everything.

His colleague driving a work Ute was hit by sun strike and accidentally turned into the path of a cattle truck and trailer unit. Jacob took the full impact – a traumatic brain injury, broken bones, a punctured lung, and severe facial fractures; his list of injuries deemed not survivable.

As the Hato Hone St John crew, supported by Northern Rescue critical care paramedics, worked to save him at the roadside, Jacob’s family rushed to Whangārei Hospital believing they were about to say their final goodbye.

Instead, the rescue helicopter gave Jacob a fighting chance.

After arriving by ambulance to Whangārei Hospital, he was then flown to Auckland Hospital for critical care intervention. He spent a month in an induced coma and underwent multiple surgeries. Even if he survived, doctors warned his family he may likely be in a persistent vegetative state.  

But Jacob refused to give up.

He had to learn how to walk, talk and eat again. Every step of recovery required determination, courage, and countless hours of rehabilitation.

“My family was told to say goodbye forever,” Jacob says. “I wasn’t supposed to make it to Auckland.”

Today, Jacob continues to defy expectations. He has pursued training towards a career in engineering and remains focused on building the future that nearly slipped away.

“My journey simply would not have begun without the rescue helicopter and the teams who worked on me,” he says. “They gave me a chance.”

For young people like Jacob, rescue helicopters do more than save lives. They preserve futures, dreams and opportunities that might otherwise be lost forever.