I WAS DEAD LUCKY
Love bites as man’s quest for a partner ends in near death from severe malaria
SURFERS Paradise resident Anthony Walker said he’s learnt a “funny lesson’’ after heading overseas for love – but returning with malaria.
The 54-year-old was just hours from death when his quick-thinking sister raised the alarm and he was rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital.
“I was dead lucky,’’ he said.
THE head of Queensland’s corruption watchdog says he responded to Deputy Premier Jackie Trad’s “unwise” Sunday phone call because he thought
The best thing you can do to avoid malaria is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes.
From dusk to dawn wear long sleeves and long trousers, preferably light coloured.
Use strong repellent.
Take antimalarial tablets prior to your trip. These can be about 90 per cent effective.
GOLD COAST MALARIA CASES (LAST FIVE YEARS)
2019 (year to date): 3 2018: 9
2017: 6
2016: 4
2015: 3
2014: 5 the call was about funding.
As Ms Trad flew out of the country to begin an overseas trade mission yesterday, Crime and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran was grilled in Budget Estimates at state parliament over a phone call she made to him just days after the LNP had referred her controversial investment home purchase to the body.
Mr MacSporran revealed he had decided to sideline himself from any decision-making role in the assessment – or potential investigation – of the complaint against the Deputy Premier and Treasurer following growing calls to do so, to protect the integrity of the CCC.
“I do not do that because I have been compromised, but I do it because there is a need to AFTER an 18-month courtship with a woman he had met online, Anthony Walker went to Ghana looking for love – but came home with a severe case of malaria that almost killed him.
“I went there looking for a wife but yeah, came home pretty sick,” said the 54-yearold gyprocker from Surfers Paradise.
“It’s a funny lesson to learn and I’ve certainly got a new appreciation for life.”
Mr Walker spent a fortnight in the west African country before returning home to Australia on June 19, saying he was “dead lucky” the malaria had remained dormant until he arrived back.
“I’d obviously been bitten by a mosquito, unbeknown to me, and I didn’t get any fevers or symptoms until the 29th,” he said. “If I’d gotten sick over there, they would have given me a Panadol and some orange juice and that would have been it.”
Thinking he had the flu, Mr Walker went to a GP but was sent home with instructions to rest and return if he did not improve.
And that is where his story could have ended in tragedy, had it not been for the quick thinking of his sister Lyn who lives in Newcastle.
“I had been going in and out of consciousness, I could hear the phone but I couldn’t answer it,” he said.
“She found my friend Dave Godfrey on Facebook and joined the dots and he came around on his bike and knocked on the door. enhance and maintain the reputation and transparency of the way we operate,” he told the hearing.
But Mr MacSporran defended his decision to respond to the “unusual and a little unwise call”, the third ever made
“I had one last surge of adrenaline and I got up and got to the door and then I relaxed because I knew the cavalry had turned up. “They saved my life.” Mr Walker was taken by ambulance to Gold Coast University Hospital where he was diagnosed by the medical director of infection control, Dr John Gerrard, and his team in less than an hour.
Dr Gerrard said Mr Walker was suffering from very severe malaria when he arrived at hospital on July 9.
“Malaria is caused by being bitten by mosquitoes and the parasite infects the red blood cells,” he said. “Under a microscope we could tell that there were a trillion total parasites in his bloodstream.”
The team diagnosed it quickly as Mr Walker had been suffering from common symptoms including rigours, which are uncontrollable shakes and sweats that drench the bed, and fevers.
“He was very seriously ill and had it not been for his sister, who is the heroine in this story, he could have been in very serious trouble, but he will recover completely.”
According to Queensland Health, three cases of malaria have been reported this year on the Gold Coast. There are reports of resistance to Artesunate, the normal drug used to treat the disease.
“It’s a drug derived from a Chinese herb and was a major breakthrough in the late ’80s and early ’90s. However resistance is spreading through South-East Asia,” he said.
As for Mr Walker’s journey to find love? “It just didn’t work out,” he said. by the Deputy Premier to his work mobile. “The reason I accepted this call – or returned the call, I should say – is that I did not know what the topic was and I was concerned that I might have needed to discuss funding issues…” he said.