Thanks for saving my life, stricken cricketer tells NHS
A CRICKETER who became paralysed while playing in Scotland has paid tribute to the NHS staff who saved him.
Overnight, Solo Nqweni, 26, lost the ability to walk, talk and swallow after developing a rare auto-immune condition.
South African-born Mr Nqweni was an overseas professional playing for Aberdeenshire Cricket Club when he was struck down by the illness.
He was admitted to intensive care at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where he spent two weeks in an induced coma.
It took six months of treatment for the disorder, known as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), as an inpatient before he was allowed to return home to Johannesburg.
In that time he also contracted tuberculosis and experienced liver and kidney failure as a result of the impact on his immune system.
Now back at home in South Africa he told the BBC: ‘The doctors said you had more chance of winning the lottery than catching this disease. I’m fortunate that I got sick in Scotland because the people were so good.’
Mr Nqweni had played a match at Aberdeen’s ground in Mannofield against Arbroath on July 14 last year when he fell ill after returning to his flat.
Reliving the moment, he said: ‘All of a sudden I started losing all of my sensation and my speech started slurring and that’s literally the last thing that I remember before waking up in the intensive care unit.
‘I just didn’t understand what was going on and why it was happening to me.
‘I was just lying there paralysed in bed only able to move my eyes. It was a very dark time for me.’
He had extensive treatment to revive his speech and mobility but a year later he still requires 24hour care. The sportsman, who has since contracted and beaten the Covid-19 virus, said he is ‘forever grateful’ to the staff at NHS Grampian who took care of him ‘as if I was one of their own’.
During his time in hospital, England cricketer Ben Stokes paid him a visit while he was in Aberdeen being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Mr Nqweni’s former Aberdeen team-mate Kenny Reid said: ‘Solo is a credit to himself that he is where he is at the moment. We would be delighted if he came back to play for us one day – that would be some story.’
Mr Nqweni has set himself a goal of being able to stand unaided by January and hopes to make a return to cricket and Scotland in the future. He said: ‘I want to come back to Scotland, for sure.’