25 January, 2019

Airgun victim recovering well

The Devonport resident injured in an airgun shooting at Devonport New World felt like a “small rock” had hit her.

Kathy Sykes says she was on her way into the supermarket around 5pm on Wednesday, 16 January when she heard a noise and felt something strike her.

“I felt like a rock had hit me, a small rock. I don’t remember it hurting, but I put my hand up and there was truckloads of blood.” The object hit her temple, missing her eye by a few centimetres. She thinks it was one of the pellets found on the ground near the incident.

Sykes called out, “Help, help.” People she knew, from years of living in Devonport, came running. They laid her down on a bench outside the supermarket, while they called emergency services.

One young woman contacted her mother who was a nurse at Anne St Medical. “She [the nurse] was phenomenal,” says Sykes. Others who helped were “wonderful”.

Sykes, speaking to the Flagstaff from Florida on Tuesday, said she felt fine. She didn’t see who had fired the shots.

By the time she was in the ambulance, she was in good spirits, laughing and joking with the paramedics. At North Shore Hospital, Sykes had a small hole “glued up”, but there was nothing embedded. After x-rays, blood tests and a tetanus shot, she was discharged that night.

Sykes says she is a strong person and hasn’t suffered after-effects. Remarkably she travelled to Florida the following day for a family holiday.

Sykes is especially grateful to the public and supermarket staff who came her aid, as well as ambulance paramedics and police.

Source: Devonport Flagstaff 25 January 2019. View Online.