פרטים חדשים לגבי התאונה של קווין

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פרטים חדשים לגבי התאונה של קווין ../images/Emo16.gif

הופיעו בגיליון האחרון של New Idea הקיווי, שיצא לפני מספר ימים. הנה התעתיק- **** למי שעדיין לא התאושש מהעניין (כמוני למשל), הריאיון הזה עשוי להיות קצת קשה לקריאה. Kevin´s Tragic Death: the Untold Story New Idea - May 11, 2002 The Chinese called him "a shooting star", someone who came, blazed across the sky, but ultimately was not long destined for the world. For the first time, one of the Kiwis who was working on Kevin Smith´s last movie, has talked about his last days, his fall and tragic death. From her home in Mainholm, a stately historic lodge in Tapanui, Trisha Downie, the New Zealand line producer who played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role during the making of Kevin´s last film, tells of the tragedy that unfolded at the movie´s end. For the four weeks before his fatal fall in February this year, Kevin had been playing the lead character of Dogan in Virtual Warriors II [sic], a joint US/Chinese production being filmed in and around Beijing. Trisha, a veteran of Kiwi movies Desperate Remedies and Snakeskin, says Kevin was playing a baddie, a spiritual warrior whose task was to gather five elements to get ultimate power and control. "It was the best and worst of times", recalls Trisha. She says Kevin was a favourite with the Chinese crew and management, his "No worries, mate" a constant refrain during some of the weirder moments of filming. Trisha laughs loudly as she recalls the day they were filming in the Beijing market where "wire work", a kind of stuntwork on wires, was being shot. "I´d warned them that Kevin was a big guy and the idea was that as he leapt they would pull him on wires. They had about six Chinese on the end of Kevin´s rope and as he leapt there were very loud screeches and screams as these six little guys were pulled rapidly across the stage under Kevin´s weight. "God, it was so funny" says Trisha. "Kevin just said, "No worries, mate", but the next time he leapt, they had about nine or 10 guys on the end of the line. After that, they decided not to do much wire work with Kevvy. "Kevin was fantastic and whenever he was on the set, I thought, "Phew, I can go and get some office work done today", because I knew he would be all right." The accident came after Kevin had finished filming, the morning he was due to leave to fly back home before going on his next big project, a film with American star Bruce Willis. "We were talking the night before and I was saying, "You bastard, you´ll be on that plane tomorrow, drinking champagne and eating satay". We were all looking forward to that trip home", says Trisha, "and we were all sick of the food." "He was to have three days at home with his family before heading off to the dream of his lifetime on that film. He was looking forward to it. We were saying, "Don´t forget us, Kevvy" and all the bullshit you do knowing he never would. "He was off for three weeks training with the Navy SEALS before filming and we had all been talking about it. "More you than me, Kevin", I said...I couldn´t imagine looking forward to that kind of stuff, but he was really fit." The first Trisha knew of the terrible accident was a phone call. "The morning Kevin was leaving he went down to what we called "the Dogan fortress". We´d done all the filming in the studio, apart from this one exterior shot of this huge pagoda to give a bigger look to the picture." Trisha explains the fortress is a huge outdoor tower, shaped like a traditional pagoda building, used often for filming in China. "Obviously, Kevin had gone over there in the morning to have a look at it. He´d never been there and he had time to kill before leaving three or four hours later and must have decided to go for a walk around. "He´d obviously fallen, because you could see where he had fallen against the roof on the way down." Trisha says the top of the roof was fenced in with a knee-high rail. The area from where he fell was reached by a thin walkway and ladder. "To go over like that, it could have been anything", Trisha says. "He should never have been up there", she adds. "There are signs on the door that say "Do Not Climb". Of course, when you are filming, you have soldiers up there."

 

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Trisha describes the news of the accident as "horrific". "Someone had gone out looking for him and found him and the phone rang and someone just literally said, "Kevin has had an accident"." "I thought, "Oh, my God, where??"." Trisha has no idea how long Kevin lay there before being found. "He´d fallen down the pagoda roofs, gone from the tower, hit one roof, hit another one, which had slowed him down, but probably the last drop was from somewhere on the top of the roof down to the concentre [sic]. That´s where he hit his head." A former registered nurse, Trisha immediately understood the potential severity of the fall. "He was conscious, just moaning. He was definitely sore and not talking or anything, but was wanting to get up, confused, all those normal things that happen." He was taken by ambulance to the local hospital, but after a CAT scan, staff transferred him to Beijing. "I had to work with interpreters, that was the hard thing", says Trisha. "I was just glad I´d been a nurse. As soon as it´s a head injury, you never know which way it´s going to go." Trisha was utterly relieved when Kevin reached Beijing hospital, where she was impressed with the equipment and standard of care. Initially, things didn´t look too bad. "He had a bit of a bruised eye and we were more concerned about whether the fall had done any damage to his eye because we knew he had to get away on another job. He had no broken bones apart from his hand. He was semi-conscious and then the doctors put him into a coma because they wanted him still for assessment and scans." As Kevin was treated upstairs, film officials waited downstairs with money. Treatment had to be prepaid. Kevin´s wife, Suzanne, arrived 24 hours later. The next day, Kevin came round. "It was, "Phew, you scared us, Kevvy", though he was still zonked out with all the drugs." He was treated in the Intensive Care Unit, and remained in a stable condition there until the fourth day after the accident. Then everything changed. "It had been looking good", says Trisha. "Usually you get to the sixth day of stabilisation and they are starting to ship people out of ICU, looking at other treatment they may need. "In the last 12 hours he deteriorated very quickly. They called and said we´d better come in and that was a shock. You could just generally tell it wasn´t good. You can tell when there is a difference. "Kevin´s breathing got harder and then they put him on a breathing machine. The ICU staff were amazing, so professional." It is Trisha´s understanding that it was a bleed from Kevin´s brain that killed him. A haematoma or blood clot that had formed as a result of the accident was gradually dissipating. "From what I can gather, there must have been damage to blood vessels. In the normal situation when you give blood thinners, as the blood from the haematoma evaporates, it carries things through and dissipates the blood through all these tubes in the brain. "But if you´ve got damage, then the blood can´t go anywhere, unless you operate." But Trisha says surgery wasn´t an option. After Kevin died, Suzanne´s priority was to protect her sons. "The boys knew he was unwell. No one knew anything and Suzanne had not been flying over there to take a body when she left, so she was worried about her children, who are three, seven and 10. What do you do? That is the difficult thing." Months have passed, but Trisha´s memories of the man she respected and cared about are still vivid. "The Chinese said to me, "We call him a shooting star". I found that easier to cope with", says Trisha. "A shooting star goes up and makes an impression and then they go, but are never forgotten." By Kimberly Paterson.