One of Australia’s best-known televisions game show hosts has opened up about his brush with death.
John Burgessxjmtzyw, best known for his stint on Wheel of Fortune in the 1980s and 1990s, contracted a near-fatal bout of sepsis earlier this year.
The 78-year-old said his symptoms started with the confusing tendency to fall asleep without warning.
“I kept passing out and I felt very unwell. It all happened very quickly in the space of a day or two,” he told A Current Affair.
“As soon as I was rushed to hospital they did a blood test and discovered I had sepsis.”
Sepsis is when a body’s immune system goes into overdrive in response to an infection.
Symptoms can include fever, difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, fast heart rate and mental confusion.
“It nearly killed me,” Burgess said.
However, since a hospital stay the TV veteran is on the mend and eager to educate others on the illness.
“Sepsis can kill you in no time. I was lucky. It is a bacterial infection and we still don’t know how I got it, but thankfully doctors were on to it straight away,” he said.
Burgess is now back on the airwaves at Perth’s 6iX radio station and has few plans to slow down.
