trapped under a collapsed sand dune on Sunday afternoon<\/a>.<\/p>\nOne of the boys is a student at Kaitoke Area School.<\/p>\n
Principal Leanne Eloff said the community was in shock and hoping the boys pulled through.<\/p>\n
“This was a terrible freak accident. Our focus is supporting the family, along with the wider school wh\u0101nau, through this hugely difficult time,” Eloff said.<\/p>\n
“We are a tight-knit community here on Aotea, where everybody knows each other, so something like this impacts everyone. We are all hoping for a full recovery for the boys.”<\/p>\n
Locals RNZ has spoken to declined to comment, saying the community was reeling.<\/p>\n
Details of the dramatic rescue near Medlands Beach on Great Barrier Island are emerging.<\/p>\n
The boys were pulled out of the collapsed dune by members of the public and local first responders, and needed resuscitation.<\/p>\n
A Westpac Rescue Helicopter was called to the scene at 4.30pm.<\/p>\n
Attending critical care paramedic Ross Aitken said the pair were buried for a prolonged period of time.<\/p>\n
“Certainly the majority of them was covered or completely covered. They were extracted by bystanders and they were brought out unresponsive and requiring resuscitation.”<\/p>\n
The sand dunes were typical of most surf beaches, Aitken said.<\/p>\n
“It’s what I’d describe as a very standard east coast high energy beach, where you’ve got a stretch of sand and then the dunes that replenish the beach going out the back. Not dunes like you’d see at Mangawhai.”<\/p>\n
Those who were at the scene, and the first responders, did all they could and remained calm, Aitken said.<\/p>\n
“Everyone there that was pitching in was incredibly professional and focused and I wouldn’t describe it as an emotional scene. Everyone was focused on doing what the boys needed.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The close-knit community of Aotea \/ Great Barrier Island is on tenterhooks as two boys battle for their lives in hospital after what is being described as a “terrible freak accident”. The boys, who are not brothers, remain in a critical condition in Starship Hospital after being\u00a0trapped under a collapsed sand dune on Sunday afternoon. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5471,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468\/revisions\/5471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}