A dream family holiday to the United States quickly turned into a nightmare for Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell, but he was praised for his response to the ordeal that left him fearing for his life.
It was meant to be the trip of a lifetime for Mitchell, who had been planning the US holiday for years with his wife Lyndall and son Smith, 13, and twin daughters Scarlett and Emmerson, 12.
But the AFL coach, 41, had his Christmas ruined by a bout of bacterial pneumonia, which left him with “extensive collapse of both lungs” from December 23 in New York and unable to leave his hospital bed on Christmas Day.
He was going to watch an NBA game live with his family, but the medical staff told him that “you can’t make it out.”
Subsequently, Mitchell and his family’s vehicle was looted and their passports stolen on the day they were finally due to return home, which was the ultimate insult to them.
Now back in pre-season training with Bunjil Bagora (Waverley Park), Mitchell is showing few signs of the health scare that left him fearing for his life just weeks ago.
Sam Mitchell is loaded into an ambulance in New York after collapsing in front of his family at their hotel restaurant
Now back in Australia and back training, Mitchell has opened his New York Ordeal
It is the force that declares AFL champion Kane Cornes that Mitchell is among the top coaches in the league.
“Sam Mitchell could be the best coach in the league right now. We don’t know yet, but we can look back and say he’s the next Chris Scott,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“He would be the one I would try to poach,” Cornes added. “Like a Ross Lyon-style Fremantle approach to get Sam Mitchell. He would be the one I would identify, not that Hawthorn will let him go.”
It all started with “a little cough” when Mitchell and his family landed in the United States, but he was determined to persevere.
“We left on December 17 … and we had three good days there,” he told News Corp.
‘On the third day there I started to feel like I had a bit of a cold. But it was two degrees (and I thought) ‘I’m not going to get sick’.
“We had a great day (on December 20) … We went over the Brooklyn Bridge and did some really cool stuff. I did a good job (getting through it).”
However, things quickly went downhill, with Mitchell eventually collapsing in front of his family in their hotel restaurant.
‘I was sweating and drinking all the water in the room. It kept getting worse and it’s easy to see that in retrospect. I was like, ‘I just gotta get through it, we’re in New York, I’m not sick,'” Mitchell said.
The plan was to visit the 9/11 Memorial, but Mitchell’s body intervened.
“I wasn’t good,” he said.
‘I was sitting with Lyndall and the three kids (at breakfast) and I said to Lyndall, ‘I’m not going to make it today, I’m going back to the room.’
“She said, ‘What do you mean you’re not coming with us today?’ In my head I had fought it and fought it.
“At that point I got up like I wanted to go back to the room and I got three or four yards and I just woke up on the floor.”
West Coast Eagles coach Adam Simpson happened to be in New York at the time and became part of Mitchell’s support crew
AFL great Kane Cornes believes Mitchell shows the characteristics to become one of the best coaches in the AFL
Once at the hospital, it became clear how bad Mitchell’s situation really was.
The oxygen level in his blood had dropped to alarmingly low levels, indicating the onset of organ failure. X-rays showed both lungs were collapsing and Mitchell said his body felt like it was “on fire.”
When the diagnosis was finally made, it was a shopping list of conditions including influenza A, parainfluenza, bacterial pneumonia, campylobacter gastroenteritis and various other complications.
Fortunately, Mitchell’s age and fitness played a crucial role in his recovery.
“Bacterial pneumonia… is treatable, but quite aggressive,” he said. “What the doctors said at the end, when they looked at the medical records, they said, ‘wow’… they said, ‘You’ve got quite a cocktail of things here.’
The road to recovery meant Mitchell couldn’t fly home in time, so they rebooked their tickets to leave on January 10.
As his health improved, the family had a chance to salvage something from the trip, so they went to Disneyland and other LA attractions.
But on the day they were due to leave, their car was broken into, with thieves making off with their personal belongings and, crucially, their passports.
Mitchell’s quick thinking to track down his Apple AirPods, which were in one of the stolen bags, fortunately led to the recovery of their belongings and passports, just in time to fly out that night.
Now Mitchell would like to thank everyone who stood by him through the ordeal, including West Coast coach Adam Simpson, who was in New York at the time of his collapse.
“I just want to thank the people who helped,” Mitchell said.
‘It (sounds) corny to say that (the football club) is a great place to work (with) great people… until you need it.
‘(It shows) how important supporting a good workplace is. I’m doing 100 percent well now.’