Kaiora's tears for Francis ' I WAS SO CLOSE TO LOSING HIM'

The Casketeer discharged himself from hospital, but then things took a scary turn

- Wendyl Nissen

Losing the love of her life was something Kaiora Tipene wasn’t expecting to have to deal with for many years. Yet just a few weeks ago, she was holding her husband Francis’ hand as he was wheeled off into an operating room for life-saving surgery.

“I was so scared I was going to lose him and I’ve never felt that,” she tells the Weekly. “I didn’t know who to talk to or who to ring. I was just numb,” she recalls.

In the first week of December, Francis was rushed to hospital after he was supposed to be recovering from a simple operation to remove his appendix, giving his family “a hell of a scare”.

“It started when Francis had a bit of pain in his stomach, but he didn’t do anything about it,” says Kaiora. “It turns out he had to be nearly dying before he would agree to go to hospital.

“When we finally got into hospital, the doctor said he had a ruptured appendix and he was rushed into the operating room to have it removed.”

Kaiora says her husband was doing well following the operation and decided to discharge himself the next day. He seemed well and she was glad to have him back with his loved ones.

“But within the space of 24 hours of being at home, his stomach started to swell and I was having to change his dressings a lot, which was not good,” she says.

Francis had also removed the drain in his stomach, which was placed there to deal with any post-operative fluid, because he felt so well when he was at home, he didn’t think he needed it.