$10 million Powerball jackpot winner rushed to hospital in euphoric shock
A New Zealand man who won $10.3 million ($AU9 million) in the Powerball jackpot was rushed to hospital after he collapsed when seeing all the zeros in his bank account.
Lou Te Keeti, who is in his 70s, said he didn’t really believe he had won the jackpot until the money showed up in his bank account – and then it became a bit too overwhelming.
“I hadn’t really believed it until it hit my bank account. I was still thinking this might be a hoax, even though I had an email and had spoken to the people at the Lotto, it didn’t seem real,” he told New Zealand Herald.
“But when I opened my computer on Wednesday morning and saw my accounts, most of them were as usual with not much in, then there was this one account with all these zeros.
It dawned and I thought ‘whoa, this is for real.’”
He then went to do his usual grocery shopping but started to have “flutters”.
“I was feeling not myself, quite strange, and they got me in an ambulance and I had all these tests and stayed a night in Tauranga Hospital. I saw all these docs but I didn’t tell any of them that I had just won Lotto,” Te Keeti recalled.
His doctor later diagnosed him with a “case of euphoria”.
Lou Te Keeti with his grandchildren. Image credit: New Zealand Herald
Now a millionaire, Te Keeti said he’s planning to use the money to reopen Treaty negotiations for his family’s Treaty claim.
He’s also planning a special 50th wedding anniversary next year with his wife Val and their four children and seven grandchildren.
The rest of the money will be used to make sure his family are looked after.
Te Keeti said it was a last minute decision to buy the lotto ticket online on July 8.
“I saw this email on Sunday from MyLotto but all it said was ‘You have won a prize,’ but I thought it would be about $1000 and thought well that’s great, but the next day I just went to the tangi and carried on as normal. It wasn’t until I spoke to them on the phone I learned the full amount, but it did not hit home until I saw it in the account.”