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The Waters family moved to New Zealand in 1996 and now live in Palmerston North (north of Wellington) where Peter sustained his injury in a diving accident eight weeks ago. Turning 20 next month, Peter’s freak accident came about when a number of boys were all diving off a log into the ocean when a wave went out a bit further than usual and Peter hit the sand.
Fortunately his friends realised he was in trouble and pulled him to shore before he could suffer further injury. “For this, we are eternally grateful,” explains his father Nigel Waters, a Specialist Anaesthetist, the Director of Anaesthesia & ICU at Palmerston North Hospital and President of NZ Society of Anaesthetists.
“On day two in ICU he could only move his eyes and lips and since then every bit of recovery he gets he takes maximum advantage of and works with the physio to the point of exhaustion daily.
”He is very positive, totally motivated and never once complained about his predicament,” explains his father who admits that Peter is now “a million miles from where we were in the first week of 2010.”
With the visit from The Sharks players, father Nigel adds enthusiastically that, “What I can say with complete conviction is that these kinds of visits to institutions like Burwood Spinal Unit are much, much more than PR exercises - they absolutely lift patient morale to new levels and allow the visiting teams to give something really good back to an institution that does so much for sport injured patients.”
Peter was very pleased to see the boys who left a gift for him and he will also receive a Sharks Flag from the team.
”Pete was born in South Africa but remains a big Sharks supporter,” said Nigel.
