Medici staff member Tamara Hudepohl was quick to get help for the injured customer. PHOTO/KAREN COLTMAN
KAREN COLTMAN
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Cafe Medici staff and Martinborough emergency services combined to offer timely help to a customer who suffered a fall at lunchtime on Tuesday.
The Martinborough Volunteer Fire Brigade team assisted for over an hour with the medical emergency.
Waitress Tamara Hudepohl has worked in hospitality for 15 years and knows who is who in Martinborough, and knew exactly what to do. She called 111 but also drew on her local knowledge.
“I knew if I got hold of the Martinborough fire volunteers then they would bring their paramedic Chris Hooson and then I thought the local doctor Stephen Philip would likely come too,” Hudepohl said.
Both men came to help.
The elderly woman fell over when she got up out of her chair. She was helped back into her chair but that is when the pain set in and it was clear to staff she was seriously hurt.
She went by ambulance to Wairarapa Hospital with a suspected broken hip bone. She was reported in a stable condition and scheduled for surgery on Thursday.
Cafe owner Nick Arnold said he was “devastated” that the accident happened in the cafe but was proud of his staff for thinking quickly and getting local help.
In the 13 years he has owned the cafe there have been four medical emergencies involving customers, he said.
During the week many of his clients are semi-retired or retired folk. He has phoned the woman’s family and was keeping in touch with them.
