RACE AGAINST TIME Ellie's lifesaving decision

AS LIFE HUNG IN THE BALANCE, THE YOUNG DRIVER STEPPED UP

- Lynley Ward

When the commentator at the Omakau Races announced that champion harness racing driver Ricky May had fainted during a race, it struck fellow driver Ellie Barron as odd.

“I was jogging over after gearing up a horse for my uncle because I wanted to watch a horse I had previously driven,” recalls Ellie of the moment she heard the broadcast on that early January day in Central Otago. “I remember thinking, ‘Shivers, it’s not that hot.’”

“And then I just saw him. He was sort of lying in the cart. Because I heard that he had fainted, I thought I’d try and catch him. I didn’t know how I was going to get there in time, but his horse was slowing down and I thought I’d be able to grab him and lower him to the ground. The cart just stopped and, because Ricky wasn’t holding on, he fell onto the track.”

Drawing on her skills as a qualified physiotherapist and her experience of tending to injured rugby players, Ellie (24) knew instinctively what to do.

“When I got there he was presenting like someone who had been knocked out. He was on his side and breathing but very laboured. I thought, ‘I’m going to help him with his breathing,’ the same as I would for a rugby player.

“We got his hat off, made his airway nice and open and I was holding onto his neck as I would treat any other head knock.”

But the veteran driver unexpectedly took a dire turn.

“He just took a couple of very laboured breaths and made one very long outward breath and that was the last one he took on his own,“ recounts Ellie.