Australian surfing legend Mark ‘Richo’ Richardson opened up about the harrowing ordeal that almost ended his life while on holiday in Bali.
Richardson was rushed to the intensive care unit of Siloam Hospital in Kuta on the Indonesian island last September after suffering an infection and severe blood loss.
The four-time winner of the Australian surfing championship suffered internal bleeding after contracting an infection.
His condition rapidly deteriorated when friends and family launched a public appeal for urgent Type A blood donations so he could receive much-needed transfusions.
Surfing legend Mark Richardson (pictured in hospital) has revealed how he almost died in Bali last year after contracting an infection while on holiday
Nine months later, Richardson recalled how he was hours away from taking his last breath as medical specialists rushed to save his life.
“Things got pretty grim there for a while,” he told the newspaper Gold Coast Bulletin.
‘I pretty much lived day to day and then hour to hour.
“The doctors couldn’t really figure out what was going on.”
The World Surf League coach spent 10 days in hospital while doctors tried to repair a hole in one of his arteries.
It was caused by insects that managed to enter his body and attack a peptic ulcer, which are ulcers that appear on the stomach wall.
His vital organs began to shut down and depend on other parts of his body to replenish them.
The four-time winner of the Australian Surfing Championships (pictured) feared the worst as doctors rushed to repair a hole that had opened in one of his arteries.
Richardson was in a critical condition when he was medically evacuated from Bali to Darwin after Siloam Hospital refused to accept blood donations from abroad.
“In Bali I ran out of blood and there was a 12-hour period where I didn’t get any blood and I was on the verge of death,” he said.
Paramedics from LifeFlight, an air medical service that flew Richardson back to Australia for emergency treatment, feared he would not make the flight.
Richardson spent three weeks in a hospital in Darwin, undergoing multiple operations before returning home to the Gold Coast.
After a slow and steady road to recovery, he is now back in the gym.
Richardson has also returned to coaching, which he credited with helping him recover from the unimaginable ordeal.
Mr Richardson (pictured) had to be medically evacuated after Siloam Hospital ran out of blood and refused to accept blood donations from abroad
He remains unsure if he will ever be 100 percent healthy again.
But Richardson is grateful to be alive and owed his life to generous blood donations from members of the local surfing community, who rushed to save his life.
a GoFundMe The page established at the time raised more than $46,000 to help cover the costs of Richardson’s medical treatment and flight home.
Richardson is a renowned figure in Australian surfing, having won a gold medal in the Masters Division at the ISA World Masters Surfing Championships in 2011.
After his successful surfing career, he became a coach and mentor to several rising stars, including Aussies Liam O’Brien, Callum Robson and Isabella Nichols.