Car and lifeline stolen

[okarol]

 By DAVID TAURANGA - Manukau Courier | Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Car and lifeline stolen

The thief who stole Lani McKellar’s car early on Boxing Day morning might well have been robbing her of life.

The 31-year-old Mangere woman is a final-stage renal patient and three times each week she drives to Middlemore Hospital for dialysis treatment to keep her alive.

Police have found her car and the man who stole it but Lani is heartbroken that he damaged it so badly it cannot be driven.

Early on Boxing Day morning the thief took the car from the driveway of her parents’ home – just metres from where Lin and Don McKellar slept.

Lin was woken around 2am to the sound of the car’s engine starting up.

She says the thief "bolted down the driveway", hitting their fence and in the process ripping it out of its concrete blocks.

The family called the police who were "on top of it straight away", Lani says.

"I’d just got off the phone with dispatch when they rang my cellphone to say they had my car. It took them about 20 minutes to pick the guy up and pull him over."

Around $800 in damage was done to the vehicle – money that neither Lani nor her parents have. The car was not insured.

The theft has rocked Lani who says it’s had a massive impact on her emotionally.

"I’ve been fighting for the last 14 years to stay alive and having a vehicle was what’s got me through.

"The car not only got me to my dialysis but got me out of the house to enjoy what I have of life.

"My car gave me independence basically."

Life will be made even more difficult for Lani because her treatments are being shifted to the Manukau SuperClinic next month.

She has received dialysis since the age of 18 and says home treatment is not possible because she "goes flat" very easily.

Going flat is when organs in the body slow down to a stop and if medical staff do not catch a patient in time "then you’re a gonner".

Lin says her daughter is prone to depression because of her medical condition and the theft has really "knocked her for six".

"We want people to know the damage they do. I wish the courts would send this guy to the dialysis unit to see what people like Lani have to go through every second day."

Her parents now drive their daughter to her treatments but they are not always able to, so Lani has to pay for taxis.

She wants thieves to understand that they’re doing more damage to a person than just stealing something.

"Many people in south Auckland are living by the seat of their pants. Nobody has excess anything and I wish thieves thought about the people they are taking from," Lani says.

"I don’t really have anything of any value. All I have in my life is my cats and my car and I depend on both to keep me alive."

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