How Kiwi's Vietnam adventure turned into a fight for survival

Author: Lochlan Lineham,
Publish Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2026, 3:50pm

A Tauranga man is lucky to be alive after his head went through a car’s rear windscreen during a motorcycle accident in Vietnam.

Callum Glover, an experienced motorcycle rider, was hospitalised for weeks, facing a possible finger amputation after the incident on May 31.

He had been heading back to Hanoi after finishing the Ha Giang loop, a popular motorbike tour around Vietnam’s mountainous northern region when a car swerved in front of him without indicating and came to a stop.

Before having a chance to react, Glover went straight into the back of the vehicle, his face crashing through the rear windscreen and the impact carrying him over the car and onto the road.

His friend, who he was travelling with, was ahead of him and unaware he had crashed.

Tauranga resident Callum Glover received multiple serious injuries after a motorbike crash in Vietnam.

The next thing Glover remembered was waking up lying on the road surrounded by 20-30 locals with their phones out, he told the Herald.

“It was horrible, like they were just recording, and some of them were laughing ...

“I was asking for an ambulance, nobody would get me one and then some lady said, ‘they won’t come, they won’t come.’”

Glover resorted to calling a taxi to the nearest hospital.

“I remember getting up, and I fell over twice because my right knee just buckled and couldn’t take any weight, so I sort of like crawled into the back of the taxi.”

Assessing his wounds, Glover found bones sticking out of his hand, a deep gash on his chest, skin on his chin flapping down and pain in both of his legs.

Callum Glover has lived in New Zealand for close to a decade.

The hospital refused to take him in, or clean his wounds, so a 35-minute ride on the back of his friend’s bike across the chaotic streets of Vietnam’s capital to find another medical centre followed.

“It was dangerous, but in that moment it was like I knew that I needed to get there quickly. I was losing quite a bit of blood as well and I felt a pain in my right side down where my ribs are.”

A “just about conscious” Glover, holding the skin flapping from his face in place, was taken in at the second hospital the pair arrived at.

“I definitely thought I was going to die,” he said.

Glover had an operation done on his hand and found out he had severe injuries on both legs, including an ACL rupture on his right, a lung contusion and internal bleeding.

After a week, he was cleared to fly home, but his troubles did not end there.

An injury Callum Glover received on his leg.

Glover was taken into surgery soon after arriving in Tauranga to get another hand operation.

Doctors found that no tendon was left in his pinky finger, and his wounds were seriously infected.

In Hanoi, doctors told him the operation on his hand had gone well, but Glover was suspicious as he could see his fingers “all pointing in different directions”.

He is now awaiting a hand reconstruction surgery, but if it is not possible to replace the missing tendon, he faces losing his finger.

An operation for one of his legs has been booked, but more scans and potential operations await.

Glover is currently in hospital, wheelchair-bound with braces on both of his legs and a sling around his arm.

Despite his condition, Glover said he’s thankful to be alive and back home.

The worrying and stressful situation of being in a hospital where no one speaks the same language as you was made easier after his mother flew to Hanoi from England, Glover said.

“There were days where I didn’t know what medication they were giving me ... I’m just on my own over there in a room for you know five, six nights, it’s pretty scary.”

His mother also accompanied him back to New Zealand.

Glover, an English native who has lived in New Zealand for close to a decade, has spent $15,000 on medical costs so far, but is hoping insurance will cover some of the bills.