CM – Eels Superfan tells of volcanic horror that claimed his son’s life

CAMEROON MAGAZINE - GM07/05/20214 Mins read55 Views

When paramedics were frantically cutting off John Cozad’s clothes, a thought occurred to him: « Don’t ruin my Parramatta Eels shirt ».

Ninety minutes earlier, at 1.59 a.m., 72-year-old John and his son Christopher proudly posed side by side on New Zealand’s White Island volcano on December 9, 2019.

Chris, 43, died five days later, along with 21 other people, of the aftermath of the outbreak.

« There was a stretcher in front of the ambulance and when I saw it I just thought I could lie down somewhere and I just went black … and that’s the last thing I remember except waking up when They woke up I cut off my eel t-shirt and said, « I really want this, please don’t cut it, » recalls John.

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On Friday evening, his 48-year-old wife, John and Beverley, will be treated to the red carpet at Bankwest Stadium when their beloved eels take on the Sydney Roosters.

But the bright lights of an NRL game are a world away from the plume of ash and pyroclastic wave that engulfed John and son Christopher on White Island and made the couple fight for their lives.

Notably, the couple captured the volcano, which erupted at 2:11 p.m., seconds on camera, seconds before they noticed the pyroclastic surge, which contains gas and volcanic material that can reach up to 1,000 degrees.

« So we ran around a rock. Christopher was below me on the rock wall that we were trying to walk around, he was running around and he stood in front of me and he kept running.

« My left foot just came out from under me and I just fell and slipped on the talcum powder. I thought I was just going to stay here. Christopher kept running. »

As the air thickened and the sky darkened, molten volcanic rocks began pelting John, causing burns to about 40 percent of his body.

« Then all those little pellets were red hot and it started hitting me in the forehead. They had given us a little mask when the sulfur fumes got too much.

« I remember my glasses falling and I bent down to pick them up and fill the mask with these pellets, but I put them to my mouth and had to use them to breathe.

John and his family were on a 14-day New Zealand cruise on Ovation of the Seas for five days.

John and Christopher were two of the 38 people from the cruise who took a guided tour of the volcano.

In the weeks prior to the eruption, the volcano had seen increased activity and its rating rose to level two, indicating « moderate to increased volcanic unrest ».

« Then I had this thought … volcano … lava … so I did it. I found that Christopher had just passed the rocks, » said John.

« He didn’t seem to want to talk. I didn’t know if his throat was burned. We quickly went back to the quay. »

At the quay, John and Christopher boarded a small boat that transported them and other injured tourists to Whakatane Hospital, a small regional hospital that was quickly overwhelmed by the number of victims.

Beverley, who skipped the tour to shop on the mainland instead, rushed to Whakatane Hospital when she heard the news of the explosion to be with her husband and son.

« Christpher was lying on his side on a stretcher because his back was burned, » Beverly said.

« He was usually a softly spoken person, but he only spoke so loudly about anything and everything.

« We walked away from Whakatane Hospital and thought how lucky we were that they were both alive.

« The next time we saw them they were both locked and Christopher never came out. »

Although the couple were conscious when they exited the volcano, they became seriously ill within hours of the eruption and were intubated and placed in an induced coma before being transferred to Hutt Hospital in Wellington.

Christopher’s condition quickly deteriorated when his kidneys and heart began to fail and were taken to the larger Wellington Hospital.

A RAAF plane brought Christopher to Concord Hospital in Sydney on December 11th. John came to see his son at Concord Hospital the following day.

Doctors then discovered fluid in Christopher’s brain, and the family made the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support machines three days after they arrived at Concord Hospital.

The Cozad family and Christopher’s wife Bianca and their three children said goodbye to Christopher on December 22nd while John was still in a coma fighting for his life.

Christopher was never far from John’s mind, and Beverley soon realized that he needed to know the tragic news about his son.

« He would say things … my daughters could understand him better than I did. Then I saw him say ‘Christopher’ and said ‘oh John, you know I don’t understand you’.

« So fast I went around and found the doctor. I told him he asked for Christopher and he said ‘you have to tell him’ and I just said, ‘What should I tell him?’ I didn’t know how to say it.

Not only did John burn nearly 40 percent of his body, but he also survived partial lung collapse, sepsis, pneumonia and a superbug. Now he has atrial fibrillation that will require medication for the rest of his life.

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