"It was traumatic": Nat Barr's terrifying health scare
Natalie Barr has opened up about a terrifying health ordeal that left her wondering if she would ever walk again.
The Sunrise host shared that she spent two months lying in a hospital bed when she was just 15, after being diagnosed with a terrifying illness.
Speaking candidly to Sunday Life, the 55-year-old revealed she wasn't allowed to sit up for months.
"I got really sick with a disease in my spine called osteomyelitis. The bug had eaten two of my verterbrae and they were crumbling," she said.
"I'd had back pain and saw a physio who wrote to my doctor... but that night I ended up in hospital with an orthopaedic surgeon telling me: 'Lie down, or you'll never sit up again'."
While having to lay flat for months on end, Nat was flown by the Royal Flying Doctor to a Perth hospital where they discovered the exact strain of the bug she had.
Natalie was then "pumped with high-dose antibiotics" for the next couple of months before eventually recovering with no permanent damage.
"It was traumatic. I didn't know if I'd be able to walk again," she admitted.
"It was a really defining moment in my life because I was 15 and old enough to think, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this situation.’ ”
The health scare was a major turning point in Natalie's life, as once she was fully recovered from the ordeal, she went on to intern at a local TV station in Western Australia where she cemented her dream of becoming a journalist.
“I spent a week there and thought, ‘This is it. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ It’s the most exciting thing: people race around, yell and scream at each other, race to the deadline at the end of the day, then come back and do it all again tomorrow."
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