When South Sydney icon Nathan Merritt takes a lap of Accor Stadium this weekend to celebrate the NRL Indigenous Round, he will do so knowing he is very lucky to be alive.
Merritt was rushed to hospital and put on life support when he was found unconscious at his aunt’s house on October 6, just a week after playing in the Koori Knockout rugby league carnival.
The terrifying medical episode left him in a coma at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after an episode originally believed to have been triggered by an adverse reaction to prescription painkillers.
Now the Bunnies legend has shown how far he has come since then and revealed how close he came to dying from a debilitating attack of double pneumonia.
Nathan Merritt is a South Sydney Rabbitohs club legend, playing 237 NRL games and scoring 154 tries, and is back at the club after nearly dying last year.
Merritt (pictured while receiving treatment) collapsed at his aunt’s house and was placed in a coma at the hospital, where doctors discovered he had a severe case of double pneumonia.
“I’ve never heard of double pneumonia before – it’s basically a really bad round,” Merritt told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘I was at my aunt’s house and I took a turn, I fell unconscious and woke up a week later in the hospital.
“I don’t remember anything about it and I ended up in the hospital for about six weeks. I was on life support and in a coma for at least a week, about seven days and the next week I was in and out as well.
“I was very groggy for a long time, especially when I first woke up and all the muscles on the right side of my body had also shut down. So I had to rebuild them and learn to live again, to do all those basic things.
“I learned to walk again, when I left the hospital I was able to walk decently again, but it took me a long time, a few weeks, to get back to my normal state.
“How lucky to be alive,” the doctors told me.
Merritt will have the honor of presenting the winner of the Eric Simms Medal for the annual clash between Souths and Parramatta at full time on Saturday.
It takes all his energy, but he is happy to return to the club he loves and grateful for every opportunity he receives.
“It probably stopped me in my tracks, but I’m grateful, grateful to be able to breathe again,” he said.
‘Little by little I have been coming back to life and appreciating every day I have. Just being a father to my kids, that’s what I’m focusing on and taking advantage of.
‘I have five: two 19 years old, one 15 years old and two nine years old.
‘The support I had was quite overwhelming. The hospital room was full most of the time I was there. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that support.
‘I don’t remember that first moment I woke up, I was in a different world, but I remember the whole family with me.
“To be back at the club now and help present a medal with Eric Simms’ name on it, he’s one of the greats of this club and the game. It’s a really special moment for me and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Merritt, pictured with current Bunnies player Jack Wighton, attended Rabbitohs training this week and will be at the indigenous round match against Parramatta.
Merritt said doctors told him he was lucky to be alive after his terrifying medical incident.
Merritt to present Eric Simms medal for best on ground after Souths vs Eels game
Souths fans hope Merritt’s emergence will elevate the players with the club sitting at the bottom of the NRL ladder.
And although injured shortstop Cody Walker won’t play in the game, he said Merritt is sure to inspire the rest of the team.
“Hearing what happened to him and seeing him here after making a full recovery is incredible,” Walker said.
‘He personifies what Souths is all about. He is a fighter, he was always in the game when he played, always floating in football, he broke records in the club.
‘He had the hairstyle like the footballer Ronaldo, he was just one of those players. I still remember the field goal he kicked that day at the SCG from the scrum line (giving them a last second win over the Wests Tigers in 2009), just crazy plays that not many could make.
“He’s a local lad, he grew up in Waterloo and that’s what the club is about.”
