{"id":419408,"date":"2026-01-17T16:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T16:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419408\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T16:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T16:14:15","slug":"australian-cricket-great-damien-martyn-opens-up-on-brush-with-death-in-heartfelt-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419408\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian cricket great Damien Martyn opens up on brush with death in heartfelt post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Australian cricket great Damien Martyn has opened up on his near-death experience and paid tribute to those who helped save his life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The West Australian great \u2014 who played 67 Tests for Australia \u2014 was rushed to hospital after falling ill on Boxing Day and placed in an induced coma after being diagnosed with meningitis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">His battle rocked the sporting world, causing an outpouring of support, including from former teammates Adam Gilchrist and Justin Langer, before a remarkable turnaround saw him recover and return to his home earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The 57-year-old posted on Instagram on Saturday, detailing his battle in depth for the first time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cOn the 27th of December 2025, my life was taken out of my hands\u2026when meningitis took over my brain, &amp; unbeknownst to me I was placed into a paralysed coma for 8 days to help me fight this awful disease. And that I did! Fight that is!\u201d he posted.\u201cAfter being given a 50\/50 chance of surviving, I came out of the induced coma 8 days later\u2026not able to walk or talk. And yet 4 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThis experience has reminded me of how fragile life is, how quickly everything can change &amp; how precious time is!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Martyn paid tribute to the doctors who saved his life and thanked everyone who sent love and support to him and his family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cSo 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7ce62d0d42a1685109d82aacf31ee221eb092bc7.jpg\" alt=\"Damien Martyn new post thanking Michael Clarke after a battle with meningitis Picture: Unknown\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\"\/>Camera IconDamien Martyn new post thanking Michael Clarke after a battle with meningitis Unknown Credit: Unknown\/Instagram<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI am so grateful to you all. Thank you!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian cricket great Damien Martyn has opened up on his near-death experience and paid tribute to those who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-419408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}