Back from the brink
January 26, 2012
The Leon Brackenridge of today is a far cry from when he was at his lowest.
By ALAN ERSKINE
SPECIALIST medical teams at the Royal Melbourne Hospital tried day after day, without success, to rouse Mildura’s Leon Brackenridge from an induced coma.
Flown by air ambulance from Mildura to Melbourne, followed by a helicopter airlift to hospital, Leon just wasn’t responding after collapsing with a mystery illness at the age of 26.
The formerly super-fit sports fanatic and workaholic lay motionless and unresponsive in intensive care for almost two weeks, a series of tubes draining fluid from his heart, lungs and stomach as the best medics in the country carried out exhaustive tests to find out what was wrong.
Meanwhile, Leon’s body was wasting away. He shed 27 kilograms as family members from New Zealand and friends from Mildura watched helpless by his bedside. There was every chance that Leon wouldn’t make it, and family members were told to expect the worst.
It was 12 days before Leon showed any signs of life. His Mum, Dad and his sister, who had flown in from NZ to maintain a week-long vigil, knew he was on the way back when his eyes slowly opened, and he smiled at one of the pretty nurses in the room.
Leon doesn’t remember anything from the 12 days that are missing from his life. Four years down the track, and still in rehab, he is in the process of fighting back, thanks to the support of family and friends, a new lifestyle based around healthy eating, a positive attitude and a strict exercise regime.
Leon is one of the lucky ones…he was able to fight back from the debilitating and mystery Adult Still’s Disease, a rare illness that strikes without warning, and which is marked by intense pain, swelling of the joints, rashes, acute weight loss, and fever. He has been told by specialists that in extreme cases like his, the survival rate is just one in 500,000.
It is only now, with the encouragement of friends, that he is willing and able to tell his story, and for all the right reasons.
“I’ve been through all the ‘why me?’ depression, anger and frustration stages,” he says. “I’m not telling the story so people can feel sorry for me…I am speaking out as a message to other sufferers of severe illnesses that where there is life, there’s hope…there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. And there is usually always someone, family or friends, ready to give their support.”
Leon is New Zealand-born and educated, leaving school to become an apprentice builder, but decided in 2004 to travel to Australia for work, and to play professional rugby on the Gold Coast. After not quite making it at the top level, he went back home for a few months, returning to Australia as a backpacker in 2005, and deciding to base himself in Mildura.
Working with Treasury Wine Estates at Lake Cullulleraine, making friends, saving money and playing footy with Werrimull, and then Merbein, life for the next two years was going from good to better, with a highlight being a road trip from Adelaide to Darwin with some mates, followed by a two-week trip to Thailand. But then…
Leon will never forget the Tuesday night footy training session at Kenny Park, Merbein, when his joints started to ache, his knees were swelling with fluid, with accompanying pain. Experienced trainers couldn’t help, so Leon drove himself to Mildura Base Hospital Outpatients, where after a wait of several hours he was told he had a cold, and should go home and rest, making sure to keep up the fluid intake.
Getting worse by the day, Leon went first to a medical clinic, and then to Outpatients on the Thursday, and was given the same advice. By the Friday he was badly dehydrated, and in such a state that one of his best mate’s Mums, Sharon Longeri, took him to her doctor.
The rest is pretty much a blur for Leon. He remembers collapsing in the doctor’s rooms, and a quick trip to Hospital in Sharon’s car…so quick that a police car had trouble keeping up as the officer tried to intercept her for speeding.
Leon was admitted to hospital, and given anti-inflamatory drugs and pain killers as doctors ordered a series of tests to determine his illness. They initially thought it might be linked to his Thailand holiday.
Leon got worse by the day. He lost his memory, and doesn’t remember visits by the Longeri family, footy friends and work-mates. He was told later that a young intern had recognised some of his symptoms as being similar to patients she had seen at the Royal Melbourne, and after a telephone consultation hook-up, the decision was made to put Leon into an induced coma for an emergency Air Ambulance flight to Melbourne.
As a helicopter took him from Essendon to the Royal Melbourne, Leon’s dad Ian and Sharon Longeri had met by chance at the hospital, waiting in ICU for Leon to arrive. It was then that specialists began a series of exhaustive tests, but couldn’t trace the cause of his illness. Doctors then tried to bring Leon out of his coma, but without success. As he lay in Intensive Care, gradually slipping away, his mother Linda and sister Tania, then 21, also arrived from New Zealand, joining Josh and Sharon’s husband Reno to be at his bedside.
They were shocked at what they saw. The previously super-fit Leon was hooked up to a series of machines, with tubes constantly draining fluid from his heart, lungs and stomach.
His temperature rocketed into the 40’s, and Leon was told later that his brain was “cooking.” Nurses treated him with ice packs.
Unbelieveably, the following day his body was so cold he went from ice packs to thick, warm blankets and heaters. He was monitored 24/7, and this hot/cold treatment lasted almost two weeks, as Leon’s body wasted away, from 96 kilograms on admittance, down to a muscle-wasting 67 kilograms.
Ian Brackenridge was asked to make what he later described as the hardest decision of his life…to authorise a radical and potentially dangerous new experimental steroid in the hope it would rouse Leon from the coma. It didn’t work, apart from a brief moment one day, as good friend Josh was keeping up his gentle ribbing of Leon, who he affectionately termed ‘that stupid Kiwi,’ and called him by his life-long nickname of ‘Chief.’
Leon was later told that after hearing this, his eyes flickered, and for a brief moment he extended his hand and arm towards the voice, before lapsing back into the coma. On the 12th day, inexplicably, Leon’s eyes flickered again, then opened, and in a slurred voice, he started ‘chatting up’ one of the pretty nurses.
It was obvious that he was alert, with no brain damage, but another long, slow fight lay ahead for Leon after he was finally diagnosed with the debilitating Adult Still’s Disease.
Leon admits he was at his lowest point…with so much muscle wastage, he couldn’t sit properly in a chair, couldn’t feed himself, couldn’t shave, and needed help washing, showering and dressing.
Prescribed with some strong ‘control’ medication, Leon began the long fight back, trying to overcome the mental anguish, along with the physical problems. He admits it wasn’t easy, and there were times – many times – when he thought he might end it all. At one stage he was on eight different powerful medications. He was suffering severe bouts of depression, and took to drinking heavily in an effort to block out the pain. He is the the first to admit he was heading down a dangerous path.
But with regular contact with his family, who had returned to New Zealand, and lovingly cared for by the Longeri family, and friends such as Mark Duscher, Leon gradually worked it through…day by day, week by week…mostly at home in Mildura but with frequent trips to Melbourne for further treatment, tests and rehabilitation sessions.
Only those readers who have experienced a similar illness, or who have cared for loved ones in that situation, will know what Leon went through, before, during and after his diagnosis. Leon believes a major turning point for him came when Treasury Wine Estates offered him a fitness, health and well-being incentive program at You-Fit in Etiwanda Avenue, Mildura.
It was here that Leon was introduced to owner Lee Garraway, who on hearing his emotional story, promised to help in any way possible. The initial three-month course has now been extended, rolled over into a more intensive fitness regime, and after a further three months, Leon is loving every bit of it, and has signed up for the next 12 months. He has all but quit drinking (“I did break out a bit over Christmas/New Year,”) and has had almost a complete lifestyle change.
Now he’s in serious training, along with about 30 fellow fitness enthusiasts, for the Phillip Island ‘Tough Mudder’ challenge in a few weeks, a military-style commando course over 20 kilometres, and involving a series of 25 obstacles along the way.
Although he still gets some pain, swelling and other flare-ups, Leon has learned to cope and adjust, and even managed a five-week European holiday last year, followed by a two-week trip to the Cook Islands. He can’t speak highly enough of the help he’s getting from girlfriend Lauren, family and friends back home, the Longeri family, the bosses at Treasury Wine Estates and heaps of friends from around Sunraysia.
“I’m back,” he says. “This has been a setback, but at 30, and after the worst four years of my life, I know now that my best years are ahead, and if my story gives even one other person the inspiration to keep fighting, and never give up, I’ll be well satisfied.”
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