![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/man-blinded-after-being-hit-by-boat-while-snorkelling-on-po-anniversary-cruise/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/0_THP_CHP_300923Slug_1402JPG.jpg&description=Karain Eketone and his wife Susan were enjoying a 13-day cruise with P&O for their 25th anniversary when he was ran over with a boat during a snorkelling trip off the coast of Fiji A man has been left near blind after a horror boating incident while snorkelling on a P&O cruise to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary. Karain Eketone, 42, from New Zealand, had been at sea for five days, with another eight to go, when he and his wife Susan set off for a snorkelling trip on Dravuni Island, a small paradise isle betweeen the south coast of Fiji and Kadavu Island. But the trip, which they elected to go on outside of P&O's itinerary, ended in horror when a local ran him over with his boat, leaving him with serious injuries. The head trauma was so severe that his brain was left spilling out of his skull. Karain told the Daily Mail: "The propeller went through my skull and fractured it in three places, my brain was exposed for over 40 hours. I must have raised my arms to protect my head because the propeller severed my ulnar artery in my right wrist and went through both of my hands. I sustained severe brain injury and permanently lost over 50 per cent of my eyesight as a result." He was raced back to the ship, where he was then airlifted to the Colonial War Memorial on the mainland. He then had to be evacuated to Auckland in New Zealand in a gruelling flight in which his heart stopped three times. Karain said that his wife was told there was a slim chance of survival by a number of medics, with the Auckland neurosurgeon saying he had a "high possibility of mortality". After his initial recovery, he had to undergo weeks of brain rehabilitation before being cleared to return to his home in Hamilton. His recovery didn't end there, and he's still undergoing speech, hand and physiotherapy. Doctors say that the 50 per cent loss of vision is a permanent change to his life, and that there is no way of repairing the damage done. He's unable to drive, and is unable to work as an el){kind=link}
Karain Eketone and his wife Susan were enjoying a 13-day cruise with P&O for their 25th anniversary when he was ran over with a boat during a snorkelling trip off the coast of Fiji
A man has been left near blind after a horror boating incident while snorkelling on a P&O cruise to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary.
Karain Eketone, 42, from New Zealand, had been at sea for five days, with another eight to go, when he and his wife Susan set off for a snorkelling trip on Dravuni Island, a small paradise isle betweeen the south coast of Fiji and Kadavu Island. But the trip, which they elected to go on outside of P&O’s itinerary, ended in horror when a local ran him over with his boat, leaving him with serious injuries. The head trauma was so severe that his brain was left spilling out of his skull.
Karain told the Daily Mail: “The propeller went through my skull and fractured it in three places, my brain was exposed for over 40 hours. I must have raised my arms to protect my head because the propeller severed my ulnar artery in my right wrist and went through both of my hands. I sustained severe brain injury and permanently lost over 50 per cent of my eyesight as a result.”
He was raced back to the ship, where he was then airlifted to the Colonial War Memorial on the mainland. He then had to be evacuated to Auckland in New Zealand in a gruelling flight in which his heart stopped three times. Karain said that his wife was told there was a slim chance of survival by a number of medics, with the Auckland neurosurgeon saying he had a “high possibility of mortality”. After his initial recovery, he had to undergo weeks of brain rehabilitation before being cleared to return to his home in Hamilton.