Tewhiti holding his sister's hand as she lays in hospital Transgender Auckland woman Anahera "Angel" Rangitaawa’s condition continues to slowly improve, as her family reiterates it was not attention seeking when it expressed fears she had been attacked – but had been misinformed. Rangitaawa came close to death in a fall from a tree, and has bleeding and swelling of the brain, multiple skull and face fractures, broken eye sockets and a broken shoulder blade. She is recovering in Wellington Hospital. The 33-year-old’s brother Tewhiti says she is healing gradually and showing amazing improvement “but we still have a long journey ahead of us.” He says when she was found critically injured on a Palmerston North street in the early hours of Saturday morning, the family was told she had been attacked by three men. “Upon investigation we have found that she was not attacked, and that she was intoxicated and had fallen from a tree,” Tewhiti says. “Why she was in the tree only Anahera knows, and she is not in the right head space to answer such questions yet. “But in any case that does not lessen the severity of Anahera’s condition, and our fears about her being attacked were true and of course when we saw her in ICU it looked as though she had been beaten,” he continues. “But please keep in mind, the initial info given to us was that she had been attacked and the way she looked could confirm that. “We are not attention seeking in any which way, and were just extremely concerned and in a very emotional state when were informed of Anahera’s injuries.” Tewhiti has again expressed the family’s thanks for all the love and support.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 26th June 2014 - 1:23pm