Former Australia batter Damien Martyn has returned home after a serious bout of meningitis, revealing he was given a 50 per cent chance of survival after being placed in an induced coma following his admission to hospital on Boxing Day.
Martyn, 54, shared the update on social media after being discharged from Gold Coast University Hospital, where he had spent more than a week in intensive care. He said doctors were astonished by the speed of his recovery after he initially emerged from the coma unable to walk or talk.
“After being given a 50/50 chance of surviving, I came out of the induced coma eight days later… not able to walk or talk,” Martyn wrote. “And yet four days after that, with the doctors in disbelief, I walked, I talked and proved to them all why I should be released from hospital to start my recovery.”
The former Australia international, who played 67 Tests and 208 one-day internationals, said he was grateful to be back at home and beginning the next phase of his recovery.
“So happy to be home, to be able to put my feet in the sand on the beach and to start thanking all those people that reached out to me and my family in their unwavering support,” he said.
Martyn was taken ill on Boxing Day and placed in an induced coma shortly afterwards. On January 4, his close friend and former team-mate Adam Gilchrist spoke publicly about a dramatic improvement in his condition over a 48-hour period.
“He has responded extraordinarily well since coming out of the coma to the point where his family feels it’s like some sort of miracle,” Gilchrist said at the time. “It has been so positive that they’re hopeful he will be able to move out of the ICU into another part of the hospital, which is representative of what a great recovery it’s been and how quickly it has flipped around. He’s in good spirits and overwhelmed by the support. There is still some treatment and monitoring to go but it’s looking positive.”
Writing again on Saturday, Martyn said he was feeling fine after what he described as a period when his “life was taken out of my hands”.
“There are so many wonderful people in this world… from paramedics (at Mermaid Waters Ambulance), doctors and nurses (at Gold Coast University Hospital)… to family, friends and people I didn’t even know,” he wrote. “I feel like I met all these fantastic people in the past three weeks, or they reached out to me through messages of love and support.”
