Policeman’s concern for injured dog stuns nurse
An Auckland nurse has praised the actions of a Waikato cop who helped care for a dog injured in a serious car crash.
Melinda Copley, a heart failure nurse specialist at Auckland City Hospital, was travelling along State Highway 2 at Maramarua with her cardiologist partner Rob Doughty on Sunday afternoon when they came across the crash at the intersection with Kopuku Rd.
The pair switched into work mode and started helping the two injured drivers of the vehicles involved.
Copley said she got a space blanket and wrapped it around a 60-year-old man who was trapped by his arm under his vehicle.
They also helped get an intravenous line into the woman driver of the other vehicle.
It wasn’t until she heard Bella, a huntaway cross, yelp that she realised the dog was lying in pain on its own in the middle of the road.
She raced over and put a blanket under the dog and lifted her out of the way of emergency services staff.
She then sat with her as Counties Manukau road policing Constable Tim Wells and the rest of the emergency crews carried out their work in tending to the injured and organising traffic.
However, Copley said she was floored by the care and compassion Wells showed towards the dog — who had an injured back and paw and a broken leg.
“He kept . . . saying ‘is there anything you need’ and I’m saying ‘no’ [but] he brought me something to kneel on and he chased up the vet.”
After the vet arrived, Copley said she decided to take a photo of how well the dog was being cared for while it lay injured as she was too upset to remain sitting with her.
The photo shows the vet tending to Bella with Doughty and Wells. “When the vet got there I was really upset . . . I just went and grabbed my phone because I thought it was such a beautiful scene with the people caring for Bella. She was . . . obviously really frightened.
“She had de-gloved one of her paws and she had hurt her back and [Wells] was telling her ‘you’re okay, you’re okay’. It was really lovely,” she said.
Copley said Bella had serious injuries and she’d feared she might have also suffered nerve damage.
“I cried a river over her, I really did. I sobbed like a baby. She was a beautiful dog and she knew that I was helping her so she just let me help.”
Wells yesterday confirmed that Bella was put down on Monday due to the severity of her injuries.
Wells told the Herald he didn’t think twice about helping reassure Bella once the injured drivers had been airlifted for treatment.
“By the time the Westpac [rescue helicopter] had arrived, the drivers were in the best possible hands . . . so I thought I would go and offer whatever help and support I could.”
Wells is a dog owner himself, having rescued a black labrador, Kara, from the SPCA nearly five years ago after it had been abandoned on Raglan Beach.
He praised Copley for her actions as she sat in the hot sun for about an hour until a local vet arrived.
Bella’s owner, a man in his 60s, was airlifted to Waikato Hospital in a critical condition. However, his status yesterday remained unclear.
The woman driver of the second car was airlifted to Middlemore Hospital in a serious condition.