{"id":421134,"date":"2026-01-18T11:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421134\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T11:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:53:13","slug":"north-melbourne-kangaroos-forward-paul-curtis-opens-up-on-life-threatening-health-scare-and-surgery-in-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421134\/","title":{"rendered":"North Melbourne Kangaroos forward Paul Curtis opens up on life-threatening health scare and surgery in Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

An AFL star was rushed from Bali to Perth for urgent and life-saving lung surgery after an off-season holiday turned into a hellish ordeal.<\/p>\n

North Melbourne forward Paul Curtis has detailed the terrifying ordeal where he came down with a serious case of pneumonia while travelling with teammates in Europe then had a severe reaction to antibiotics he was given while on a long-haul flight from London to Indonesia.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old father was then rushed to a Bali hospital before he was medi-vacced to Perth \u2014 the nearest Australian city \u2014 and operated on at Hollywood Hospital to remove dangerous fluid around his lungs.<\/p>\n

Curtis received what one leading Perth doctor described as \u201creprehensible\u201d treatment at a hospital in London and was then allowed to take an 17-hour flight after telling emergency staff he could not breathe.<\/p>\n

He had been turned away from the hospital after reporting he felt as if he was suffocating, only to return the next day.<\/p>\n

In Bali, he was eventually diagnosed with an empyema \u2014 a potentially deadly build-up of fluid on the lungs \u2014 and after being given more medication, was rushed to Perth.<\/p>\n

A litre of puss was removed from around his lungs and Curtis spent eight more days in hospital.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, he is still a chance to play in the Kangaroos\u2019 first game of the season on March 15.<\/p>\n

The young gun opened up on the horror trip and his recovery and return to football in an exclusive interview with 7NEWS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI waited eight hours to get seen (at a London hospital). I went up to the front desk and I said \u2018guys I can\u2019t breathe\u2019,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally got seen and they just gave me some stronger meds and I was in there for 10 minutes and they said \u2018you\u2019re all good\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtis had dramatic swelling around his face and feet \u2014 which meant he was unable to walk \u2014 and came down in a serious rash as a result of an adverse reaction to the antibiotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just swelled up, like my face just puffed up. I had a rash all over my body, my feet swelled up so I couldn\u2019t walk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"PaulCamera IconPaul Curtis with his swollen face and feet. Credit: 7NEWS\/7NEWS<\/p>\n

When Curtis arrived in Perth, he was rushed off the tarmac to the Nedlands hospital and operated on immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201c(This was) a serious, very serious, life-threatening illness and he could have died from this,\u201d Dr Clay Golledge said.<\/p>\n

The infectious disease specialist slammed the treatment Curtis received while in London, which he claimed had put the footballer\u2019s life at risk.<\/p>\n

\"CurtisCamera IconCurtis in hospital. Credit: 7NEWS\/7NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was then told he was OK to get on a plane and fly to Bali with oral antibiotics and that was reprehensible in my opinion,\u201d Dr Golledge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of care he was given at this hospital was incredibly sub-standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a serious life-threatening illness and he could well have died if he didn\u2019t get urgent medical and surgical attention when he got here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CurtisCamera IconCurtis was rushed from Bali to Perth for urgent and life-saving lung surgery. Credit: 7NEWS\/7NEWS<\/p>\n

After the surgery, Curtis looked gaunt in the face, to the point where \u201cyou could see all the bones in my cheeks\u201d.<\/p>\n

He \u201ccouldn\u2019t walk more than 50 metres without getting tired and having to have a rest\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he has now returned to training with his North Melbourne teammates and is still in the mix to face Port Adelaide in their season-opener.<\/p>\n

He said his focus through it all was three-year-old son Elijah and being healthy enough to care for his family.<\/p>\n

He also paid tribute to the doctors that saved his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had to be healthy first to obviously provide for him,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

\"PaulCamera IconPaul Curtis with his son. Credit: 7NEWS\/7NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s given me a good perspective on life I guess and how quickly things can change and some things just aren\u2019t in your control.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful for the people that helped me to get back to where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An AFL star was rushed from Bali to Perth for urgent and life-saving lung surgery after an off-season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,7204,588,85],"class_list":["post-421134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-north-melbourne-kangaroos","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421134","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=421134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}