Korie, 6, inspires dad’s miracle recovery
ADAD given just minutes to live after contracting a deadly form of pneumonia has told how his six-year-old inspired his amazing recovery.
Paul Honey’s family were told to prepare themselves for the worst when he slipped into a coma just after Christmas. But remarkably just 26 days later he was back home in Turf Hill.
Every day Paul was in intensive care his wife, Casey, would play a mobile phone video of their son Korie in his ear.
And Paul, 28, says it was the thought of Korie, who suffered from meningitis as a baby, that inspired his incredible recovery.
He said: “For the past six years I have watched Korie and all the times he’s fought and thought I’ve got to do the same to be there for him. Korie is my life - he made me do it.”
Superfit Paul, who before his illness would go to the gym at least times a week, went to A&E at Royal Oldham Hospital on Christmas Day complaining of bad flulike symptoms.
He was diagnosed with pneumonia, but his condition deteriorated rapidly and two days later his lungs collapsed and he was rushed to the critical care unit. Medics wanted to take him to Wythenshawe hospital for specialist ecmo treatment - a state-of-theart heart and lung bypass life support machine - but his condition was so severe he was too ill to travel.
Instead the team from Wythenshawe were scrambled to Oldham with the ecmo machine.
But fearing they might not make it in time, doctors told Paul’s family to come to the hospital immediately as he was unlikely to survive.
Casey, 27, said: “There were about 25 relatives at the hospital. We could see from the doctor’s face how serious it was. He told us Paul could have just min- utes to live. It was surreal, like something out of a film.”
Thankfully Paul held on long enough for the treatment to begin, and medics were able to stabilise him and take him to Wythenshawe. But he was still given just a one in four chance of survival.
And when he suffered kidney failure two days later, he was said to be the most critical patient in the north west. But he kept fighting and after 11 days in a coma, and losing threeand-a-half-stone in weight, he regained consciousness, to the delight of his family.
His tenacity continued to amaze medics and less than a fortnight later he was allowed to leave hospital.
Casey said: “His determination is just unbelievable.”
But Paul, who missed Korie’s sixth birthday and being best man at his brother’s wedding while in hospital, still faces a long road to recovery. He now struggles to walk and suffers with short-term memory loss, but says he is determined to get back on his feet - and, eventually, back in the gym.
His mum Patricia Honey, 51, said: “I always knew Paul was going to make it, 100 per cent. He’s a fighter and he always has been.”
Paul thanked his pals from the Full Contact Performance Centre gym on Queensway, who raised money for his family, visited him while he was hospital and bombarded him with messages of support.