Mum watches tree trap son

SCOTT HAMMOND/Marlborough Express

ONE MAN DOWN: Harry Taylor's Marlborough Boys' College under-16 rowing four will have to do without him after he was struck by a falling branch during a violent storm on Friday afternoon. Harry is pictured with the X-ray showing his broken ankle and his team-mates, Mitch MacDonald and Ryan Wilson.

Fierce southerly front

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KELLY SUTTON Zoom

INCOMING: The storm rolls over Wellington harbour.

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A wheelbarrow is being credited for saving Rarangi teenager Harry Taylor from serious injury after he was struck by the falling branch of a large willow tree when a southerly storm blasted through Marlborough on Friday.

The 15-year-old is recovering in Wairau Hospital with a broken ankle and badly bruised and grazed back.

The Marlborough Boys' College pupil was pushing a load of firewood in the wheelbarrow just after 4pm on Friday when he heard a loud crack and found himself pinned to the ground.

"I didn't see it coming, I just heard a big crack and then I was on the ground ... [I thought] what the hell just happened?"

Harry's mother, Bindy, knew.

Walking just ahead of him on the family's Pipitea Dr, Rarangi, property she also heard the crack and turned around to see the branch coming down on her son, a moment she described as "just crappy".

"When you see something like that it's sort of surreal."

Harry had been struck from behind by a Y-shaped branch, which scraped down his back and pinned his ankle before leaving him wedged between the branch and handles of the wheelbarrow, Mrs Taylor said.

"The front bit that came down landed on the wheelbarrow and the wheelbarrow sort of held it up or else the whole bloody lot would've come down on him ... it could've been a helluva lot worse."

After unsuccessfully attempting to lift the branch off her son, Mrs Taylor called emergency services and then drove to the house of neighbour Paul Southey.

"I just thought, `I need a man ...' [when I got there] I just said, `Get in the car'."

Mr Southey's wife picked up another neighbour and a builder, who brought chainsaws and cut the branches away from Harry before emergency services arrived.

He was eventually flown, with his father Ian, to Wairau Hospital by the Nelson-based Summit Rescue Helicopter.

Harry was quiet during the ordeal, but obviously in pain, Mrs Taylor said.

"It was all right for about the first five or 10 minutes, but after that it just hit me," he said.

The MBC under-16 rowing representative was gutted to be missing the Maadi Cup at Lake Ruataniwha this week, particularly as his team was a strong medal prospect having recently won gold at the South Island secondary school championships.

Harry had surgery on Friday night and is expected to have a second operation on Wednesday, but Mrs Taylor may drive him to Lake Ruataniwha to support his team-mates.

The tree was chopped down yesterday.

While sad to have lost the privacy the tree offered, Mrs Taylor said there were no plans to replace it with another.

"Bugger the trees, we'll just put more flax in."

- The Marlborough Express