Photo: Mark Richardson // Instagram
Mark Richardson, the four-time Australian surfing champion who has been fighting for his life in a Bali hospital, finally returned to his home country today. Since last Friday, Mark has been suffering from internal bleeding that left him in need of A negative blood, a rare blood-type that was unavailable in Bali. After unsuccessfully attempting to have blood flown in from Australia, friends and family arranged for a medevac to take him out of the country, despite his still-unstable condition.
At 6:30 a.m., local time, Mark’s GoFundMe was updated with the news that the medevac had been a success. Mark was sedated for the flight and transported to a hospital in Darwin, Australia. “The doctors couldn’t believe the state his body was in on pick up, and said it would have been fatal had he stayed in Bali as he was hemorrhaging,” wrote Fiona Meyer, who has been providing the updates on Mark’s status.
However, Richardson is not quite out of the woods yet. Though he is now intubated and stable, the update from Meyer reveals that diagnostic testing by Darwin doctors has provided more information as to his status. He is suffering from hypoxia due to a lack of blood and oxygen for a week, has low platelet levels, and fluid around his lungs and abdomen. CT scans of head, chest, abdomen came back positive, except for his bowel.
The update also provided more information as to the cause of his illness: a parasitic infection that most likely inflamed a large peptic duodenum ulcer and caused it to rupture. Meyer wrote this was the culprit of the hemorrhaging that led to Mark’s extensive blood loss and subsequent need of blood donations. As of now, the ulcer can’t be removed, so doctors used metal clips to stop the bleeding.
Going forward, doctors are treating the parasite and will perform a biopsy of the ulcer once Mark has further stabilized. Richardson will remain in Darwin until he is fully recovered.
