Having his legs severed off in an industrial accident in 2008 abruptly changed the direction of Ben Hekenui’s life. He talks to freelance photojournalist Sharyn Smart about life after the accident.
“It was either all of me or a part of me. And I said you aren’t going to take me!”
Ben’s positive attitude throughout his horrific ordeal comes from a life-time of playing top level sports.
“Through all my sport I’ve had that determination, courage and that never give up attitude – this won’t beat me.”
After 26 years together, his wife Chrissy keeps him in line and keeps him focused. She has lovingly stood by his side and supported him throughout his ordeal.
“Usually they say the man is the rock but in this case she’s the rock.”
Today the 43-year-old double amputee has a passion for wheelchair basketball and captains the Taranaki RollersTeam. He has recently been named in the New Zealand training squad.
“If I was still an able-bodied person I wouldn’t have known what wheelchair basketball was like. I wouldn’t have been Taranaki Person of the Year, Countdown hero or nominated for the Spirit category at the Attitude Awards held on World Disability Day.
Ben has recently been named in the New Zealand training squad for an upcoming tournament in South Africa.
“Our coach Therese contacted the coach of the NZ team and asked him the pathway of making the team. He invited me to the training camp to have a look at me and then from there added me to the squad. He has also seen me play in the B Grade at the Nationals.”
“I’m waiting to hear if I make the touring team to go to South Africa which will be near the end of August. I will find out the first week of August if I am asked to the August training camp and then the touring team.
His determination and courage have transitioned him from an able bodied father, rugby and league representative and a man who worked physically demanding jobs to a double amputee, wheelchair basketball player and community role model.
“I know about setting goals, know about mentality. When it’s hard out in the middle of that rugby or league field you know it’s hard out there, just look at each other and don’t give up, it’s not over yet, it’s not over until the whistle blows.”
Ben has put these thoughts into practice as he has learnt to live with the loss of his legs.
“You just have to carry on with life. The main thing is that I’m still here with my wife and my kids and I will get to see my grandkids grow up.”
“It has definitely had its up and downs. A down would be the phantom pain. Sometimes I just will be still and my stump just starts pulsing. It’s probably the nerve trying to talk to the rest of the leg. Sometimes it pulses quite vigorously and I go GEES!! Other times it feels like when you get itchy heels. You just want to get against something and scratch it.
“A positive would be rolling around at wheelchair basketball, that’s always an up! I really enjoy playing it. I would play it all day and every day if I could.”
Ben’s wife Chrissy says that discovering wheelchair basketball has been great for Ben.
“His only real up is his basketball as it just makes him smile. It’s great to see him happy which is why I enjoy him playing basketball. The only problem is when Ben talks about wheelchair basketball I’ve always wanted him to talk about getting on his legs in the same way.
“He could walk his own chair into wheelchair basketball, take his legs off, play, put them back on and walk his chair back out.
“My goal has always been to see him standing again. We still have 40 plus years together. Life would be so different if he chose to use his legs.”
Ben had another operation in 2013 to reshape one of his stumps to enable his prosthetics to work better.
“I’m happy to get on my legs to go to work. I do three hours a day for two days a week. I also jumped in my legs and went down the park to watch the boys play rugby. When I am around home it is easier to get into my chair. I don’t think I would give up the chair.
“I am never going to be an able bodied person again. Even if I put my legs on and I am standing up, I am still not abled to me.”
In April 2008 Ben’s legs were severed off in an industrial accident at Taranaki Recylers in New Plymouth. He vividly remembers every second of the horrific incident.
“This one day I was pushing cardboard up there (the conveyor belt) and I didn’t notice up the top it was blocked. The cardboard went over the chute, the hole where it falls down, and it must have just went over and sort of bridged it.”
The cardboard just kept piling up and falling over the sides until Ben’s workmates shouted out to him.
“I went over and pushed the emergency button for that conveyor belt thinking the emergency button cuts out the whole machinery.”
Unfortunately it was later discovered by OSCH that the baler was not connected into the emergency stop system.
Ben climbed up and started throwing the excess cardboard back down as he attempted to discover what was blocking the chute.
“I leant over a little bit further with my weight to grab some more and it just gave way. I then fell down with some of the cardboard.”
Ben fell approximately 15 metres into the cardboard compactor and baler luckily landing on his feet and not his head.
“If I had landed on my head I would have been knocked out because all at the bottom of it was steel.”
Looking up Ben realised the only way out – was not an option. Suddenly he heard the machine start up as the chute was now clear. Ben was stuck inside an operational compacting machine.
“I think I must have triggered the sensor as I went down. I thought pushing the emergency button would have stopped the whole machine.”
As the machine started up Ben’s 2IC realised that she couldn’t see him and rushed to turn the machine off. Unfortunately by the time she got to the machine … the damage was already done.
Inside the chute Ben quickly devised a plan to save himself as instinct told him he had to get on top of the ram, which compacts the cardboard, and was fast approaching him.
“(I thought) If I don’t get on top of that I’m going to be a pancake.”
He pushed himself against the back wall of the machine and waited and waited as the ram came closer and closer. When the ram was within reach he wedged himself with one hand on the wall and the other on the machine. Levering his body up he thought he had saved himself.
“I managed to pull my body up and then when I looked down … oh no my legs … too late … clean cut. I had to sacrifice my legs to be still here with everyone.”
The 2IC banged another emergency button and rushed to open a hatch door hoping that she was in time. When she opened the door it was obvious she was too late.
Ben’s partner Chrissy Brown got a phone call from Waste Management saying ‘Chrissy you need to get to the Hospital.’ Her first thought was “Oh my god he drives a forklift he’s knocked himself out or something.”
“I said to my two boys, come on get in the car we are going to the Hospital. I didn’t even know where A&E dept was as I had only been living here for four months. I only grabbed my wallet and rushed out the door.”
Once at the Hospital Chrissy asked an ambulance driver for directions to A&E.
“We parked in the top carpark above the ambulance bay. As I was walking down the stairs there was an ambulance driver cleaning out his ambulance. I said to him excuse me I’ve never been here before, can you please direct me to A&E my husband has just been bought in.
“Just the look of realisation on his face as he asked, ‘Are you Ben’s wife? This way please.”
Entering A&E the staff were waiting to take Ben to theatre.
“I don’t know how long they were waiting for us. Ben wasn’t going to leave until he had seen us. By the time we got there Doctor Glenny had said ‘Sorry but we’ve got to take Ben now.’ I was like what? What’s happened?
“I rushed to Ben’s face and looked at him. I asked him, ‘What have you done honey?’
Ben said “I’ve lost my legs. My legs have been severed.”
“Just like that, they were in such a rush to get to theatre. I don’t think he realised that I didn’t know.
“I said ‘No you egg what happened, what have you done?”
Ben said ‘I’m alright. I’ll be alright.”
“By that time our two boys were at the foot of the bed looking straight at where his legs should have been.
“Mr Glenny said ‘We have to go, we will be back to talk to you.’ And they rushed him to theatre. I was stopped at the theatre doors.”
Chrissy suddenly found herself barefoot, no cellphone and in shock struggling to understand what was happening.
“The only number I remembered off the top of my head was a family friend, Alana Prestney. I rang her and said I’m up at the Hospital, Ben’s had an accident! She came to us straight away.
“Luckily Alana had my best friend’s number in her phone, who was like a sister to me, as I wanted to contact Ben’s family in Palmerston.
“We later found out that the grapevine had been at work and said that Ben had actually died.”
Born and bred in Taihape into the Ngati Tuwharetoa Ben’s family came and blessed the accident site before taking his legs home to be buried.
“My family got the work site blessed so they could remove my limbs out of the bale of cardboard. They took them back up to Taihape where my Mum was buried and put them at the foot of her.
“My two boys went for me. I wish I was there. You know being a week into it I was still trying to get over what had happened. It was hard letting Dad do that while I was still stuck in Hospital.
Ben spent 28 days in Hospital where he slowly learnt how to live day to day life without his legs.
“So the first three weeks were huge and I don’t think we have ever really thanked the staff and in particular Sue Carrington for all their care and support they gave us,” says Chrissy.
“Sue’s help was just huge as she kept our privacy because of the huge media interest. It was so important so that we could have family time. I really just want to thank her for that as she even got all the staff to say no phone calls unless through her.
“Also the staff were just wonderful. They went out of their way with other personal stuff to help keep our privacy which was greatly appreciated. Even now when I see any staff who looked after Ben they still remember him and ask how he is doing.”
In November he was fitted with prosthetic legs and mastered them after four weeks but still prefers his chair.
“It’s not hard putting my legs on but it’s hard walking in them because when I’m in my legs and standing upright all my weight is pushing on my stumps which are rubbing on the prosthetics.
Being a competitive sportsman Ben quickly looked for a sport to keep fit.
“I have to keep doing sports to keep in shape as the heavier I am the heavier I push on my stumps.”
“I was lying in the hospital bed knowing that I can’t do the sports that I love and so I have to attack it from another angle.
“I knew that I was going to be in a wheelchair so my next best sporting things were going to be things in wheelchairs, so things like the Paralympics.”
“I competed at the NZ Paralympics National Championships in Wellington in shotput, discus and javelin. I won bronze in the javelin and I’ve never thrown one before.”
Ben’s amazing quiet strength and positive attitude along with his bubbly personality has always shone through his pain levels and quickly he became a role model for many.
“The organisers of Independence Day in Inglewood for all the disabled kids asked me to come down to the athletic track. They wanted me to be their ambassador and hand out all the medals to the kids for prize giving and pick some kids for trophies.
“I didn’t even know all these kids. Just seeing the smiles on their faces I thought man these kids are just having so much fun.”
“When I was out and about people would come up to me as they would see me in the paper or see me on TV and go oh you are doing well, congratulations mate, keep at it.
“My progress wouldn’t have been as smooth without the support of my beautiful wife Chrissy and our two boys Anthony, 26 and Isaac, 22.”
After 19 years together Ben asked Chrissy to marry him on her 40th birthday.
“Ben and I, we balance each other,” said Chrissy.
“We’ve got to find things to be grateful for out of that yucky accident. Ben’s alive, he could have died, he could have just fallen in there and knocked himself out and I would never see him again.
“I couldn’t imagine my life without him, even the way he is now. I never take Ben for granted.
“Him getting on his legs 24/7 is my dream for him. I said to him we’ve got our whole life out there. Life is going to be so different when you’re up on your limbs.”
Ben and Chrissy’s story has been such an inspiration to the community that local wedding planner Belinda Williams saw them being interviewed on TV and decided she could help by offering to organise their wedding.
“She rang us and said you don’t know who I am but I’d like to help you. Could we met up and I’ll explain everything to you then?”
“When we met her one of the questions was ‘When do you want to get married?’ I said maybe in the next three or four years once we can get some finances together.”
Before they could grasp the enormity of the situation 37 businesses around Taranaki had made donations towards the wedding booked for the 27th March 2010.
From arriving at the ceremony with a helicopter flight from Heliview and then a limo ride from Special Limos, a wedding dress from CC Wards, suit hire from Kingsway Menswear, the Ratanui for the wedding venue and accommodation, marquee for the wedding breakfast from Dobsons Marquees down to photos by Mark Harris Photography and of course the cake from Snickerdoodles Coffee and Bakeshop was generously donated to make their day special.
The very happy couple were totally blown away by the support they received.
“It was a gorgeous day. Everything was so perfect,” says Chrissy.
“Thank-you” just seems so inadequate for the amazing day we enjoyed with our family and friends.”
Ben adds “It was great what Linda did as we actually didn’t even know her.”
A phone call from Sport Taranaki’s John Sigurdsson changed Ben’s life again giving him the opportunity he thought he would never have.
John asked Ben if he would be interested in giving wheelchair basketball a go. One roll around the court and Ben was hooked.
“After my accident I thought there wasn’t a sport I could play. But after trying wheelchair basketball I said this is me. This is a sport that I can play, that I can enjoy.
In 2013 Ben captained the Taranaki Rollers as they made their first appearance at the national wheelchair basketball championships after a layoff of more than 20 years.
“We got third in our division, which was really, really good. This was my second nationals so I knew what to expect.
“I liked athletics but I’ve always been in a sport with a team so I have never played in a sport by myself. Participating with other people and engaging myself is why I like team sports.
“I’m not the coach but when I’m at basketball I help everyone. I say to them once everyone is here and all the chairs are here get in and let’s start warming up. You need to warm up for wheelchair basketball just like any other sport.
Coached by Parafed’s Jake Mills and volunteer Therese Campbell the team won a respectable third placing in their division.
Jake said that he and Therese are excited seeing the sport grow in Taranaki and having Ben as captain has been a great role model for fellow team mates.
“He has really stepped up as captain and he helps coach. We try to get his skills and knowledge into the sport we play.”
Jake explained the aim of Parafed is to help all people with physical disability and encourage them to participate in sport.
“There are a lot of people like Ben out there, that are ex-sportsmen, that may feel that they can’t play sport any more, that there aren’t any opportunities for them any more, when there is.
“With wheelchair basketball the only difference besides back court is that there are two pushes and a bounce of the ball or a pass. So the rules are still basketball, exactly the same, but you are playing in a wheelchair. The goal height is the same, you have five players, right down to the minor details like you have time out.”
Ben wants people to know that he holds no bitterness regarding the accident and strongly believes that you have to look forward to each day and make the most of it.
“You have to set goals, stay positive and work towards them.”
“I don’t like to have bitterness against other people. I just want the machinery fixed so that this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”
Ben and Chrissy along with Anthony and Isaac all have been so overwhelmed and humbled by the strength and support from the community.
“It is hard to thank each and every person and express in words our gratitude. Thank-you just is not enough for everything that has been done for us,” said Ben.
Chrissy adds “My husband has a heart of gold. He is as strong as an ox. I can’t imagine what he went through but he is with us which is the main thing.”