No timeline for recovery

A Givealittle page has been set up for Reece Lett’s family. PHOTO/GIVEALITTLE

ARTHUR HAWKES
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Reece Lett, Wairarapa roofer and active member of Greytown Rugby Club, was involved in a serious car crash in Tokoroa on June 26, leaving him with a severely broken leg and a damaged rib cage; the impact to his brain is still unknown. He is being treated at Waikato Hospital.

Caleb Clark, Reece’s close friend, created a Givealittle page on behalf of the Lett family, to ease the financial burden, which has now raised close to $10,000 from 149 separate donors.

The fundraising page also stated that any money raised beyond the costs of accommodation and food for the family will be donated to the emergency services.

The 30-year-old has reportedly made small improvements, undergone an operation on his badly damaged leg, and had the ICP [intracranial pressure] monitoring bolt in his brain removed.

Reece’s father, Kevin, a volunteer Featherston firefighter, said that his son had come off ventilation and was breathing on his own, and that the hospital had also reduced his sedation.

“He’s starting to open his eyes and look around a lot more, he’s a little bit responsive to what you ask him sometimes,” Kevin said.

“I’ll say to him squeeze my hand, and a couple of minutes later he will.”

Kevin said that the staff at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, where Reece’s family have had to temporarily base themselves, had been exemplary.

“The communication from the nurses and doctors here in ICU has been outstanding, and I can’t fault them at all.

“They’ve been letting us know what’s what, how it is, and what could be – we’ve been under no illusions at all from the start.”

Kevin said that there was no timeline at the moment for the type of injury Reece had suffered, and that his son could end up in Auckland Hospital due to the possible need for specialist rehabilitation.

“It’s a day-by-day game really, to assess how he’s going.”

Reece went to primary school in Greytown and later attended Kuranui College, but had travelled north for work, due to him being made redundant from his local roofing job after covid-19.

Kevin described the progress of the fundraiser as “quite overwhelming”.