As soon as Isaac West started to feel blood pooling in his boot, he knew he was in a serious situation.
The former University of Otago student had been skiing on Mt Hutt in July 2021, when he lost control and skidded into a snow-making machine.
He broke both his tibia and fibula, and they were both sticking out of his leg.
But the real problem was, one of the sharp bones had sliced through a major artery and he was bleeding profusely.
"I don’t remember much about the crash but I do remember seeing a big lump in my ski pants.
"I knew that my leg was pretty banged up but I didn’t know how bad it was. I was in fight or flight mode."
The 21-year-old was flown in a rescue helicopter to Christchurch Hospital, where doctors said he came close to losing his leg.
But 10 units of blood and four surgeries later, he is back on his feet.
Despite the horrific injury, Mr West completed his business commerce degree (majoring in human resource management) last year.
At the end of the year, he gathered together as many of his friends and fellow University of Otago students as he could, and encouraged them to give blood.
And he is continuing to encourage students to give blood via a video at the New Zealand Blood Service tent at Ori’23 Tent City this week.
"I want people to donate.
"I don’t think people realise how important blood donations are until they actually need one themselves
— I didn’t really have a care in the world about blood until I needed it.
"I’m eternally grateful for the people who donated blood for me. If they hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t be here."
Mr West now has 71 members in his donor group, who have collectively given 99 blood donations and 95 plasma donations, saving nearly 400 lives so far.
The New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) will be around the University of Otago’s orientation week events as part of a four-week campaign to encourage more students to join the donor registry and donate blood.
NZBS national marketing and communications manager Asuka Burge said it was "ridiculously easy" to donate blood and every donation had the potential to save up to three lives.
The service has 4015 donors in the Otago region and needs to collect 264 donations each week to keep up with demand for blood and blood products.
The NZBS will host a mobile blood drive at the university campus from February 28 until March 2.
Anyone who could not attend, could visit the dedicated donor centre in Crawford St, she said.
