I am Crystal of West Auckland and I made contact with Cathy by sending my views to the Western Leader, she sent me her
story and we stay in contact, she is a very ill woman at this time, she gives her full permission for her story to be
out there as she feels what has happened to her and her family might be of help. Here it is then.. Regards Crystal
Hi there Crystal
well....... this has been the week from hell.
On Monday our much loved pet Brodie died he was 9 years old a beautiful King Charles Cavallier, Ive only been in his
life for 1 year but he became my dog as well as my partners he is away 2/3 weeks of the month, My partner is devistated
over Brodies Death (NATURAL)my daughter was devistated as well , we get through Tuesday and then at 5.30am Wednesday we
get the wake up call to evacuate I was still a mess from the dog dying.
We get to the Safe Venue at Ponsonby and spent the day up until around 1.30pm when they said they needed their venue
back as no one thought the spraying would go as long as it did.
Anyway the Aeraqua nurse was trying to find out what areas had been done and which ones hadnt, she couldnt find out a
thing as no one was telling any one anything and we were told that we would be given another safe venue to go to and
wait till it was safe to go home.
The ones with cars i/spray arms, we couldnt believe what was happening , the Aeraqua nurse was on the phone trying to
figure out what to do , the helicopter pad for refuelling was on the other side of the road about 1 paddock away it was
like a bloody nightmare ,it was stinking hot and our kids were cooking in the cars so we had to let them out I told
Danielle to cover her mouth and nose with her top , but alot of us were already feeling the affects of the spray burning
our lips eyes and noses.
We were there for around 2 hours waiting for them to make a decision then this poor lady who is 11 weeks pregnant and
had a 1year old girl there with her , she let rip and screamed at the nurse and by this stage the area co/ordinater for
health, as she turned up on the scene, and she was histerical she said my mouth is burning this poison is in me what
about my unborn baby Im only 11 weeks f.... pregnant , anyway we were all close to tears and finally they got the ok
from their head Dr , Dr franchesca Kelly to evace us to motels , m the Aeraqua team and saw another Dr , she was nice
and she checked Danielle and recorded everything , Danielle by this stage was obviously not as bad as initially , and I
reinitirated that the affects were from residue from the plane and if she had been in a full on dousing of the shit she
probably would have died.
The Dr understood and recorded every thing I had to say including the fact that I feel like Im on the verge of A
BREAKDOWN, she got her father who is an E N T specialist and working in the same building to examine me so it could go
on record and he said what he saw was a typical reaction of the lymphnods and white cells reacting in a way that would
suggest something that had come through my mouth and into my body that I was allergic to and my body was trying to stop
it entering ....... causing the little ulsers .
That is his official statement ,so because it happened in the spray drift it was highly likely it was the allergen. SO I
WON ON THAT ONE.........I sent Dani back to schoy did our place at 8am and flew over again at 5.30ish doing one last
spread, he got covered in it and has been chesty since,he said that the plane was so low about 20/30ft above the house
and he said everything shook like an earthquake , now I have to monitor him ,hes a hard cookie and reckons hes ok but I
think differently and if it has affected him he will be evacuating too, it was his decision not to the first time but we
shall see how he feels before the next lot of spraying.
must go because I have the Drs etc.
all the best to you and thanks for all the imfo, Im sending it on to other people as well.
bye for now Cathy.