Photo: @olivia_ottaway//IG
It’s no secret that Teahupo’o is just as dangerous on smaller days as it is during Code Red moments. Getting clipped by the lip of a head-high wave and hitting the reef is arguably more likely, the smaller waves surely aren’t going to help thin out crowds and a misguided sense of comfort can lead to taking chances one would think twice about in heavy conditions, just a few factors that up the ante. Think back to when Keala Kennelly nearly left half her face on the reef as a reminder. Still, Australia’s Olivia Ottaway might take the cake for the most unsuspecting, life-threatening injuries suffered from a visit to the End of the Road.
Ottaway took a trip to Tahiti in 2023 and flew back to Australia with no known injuries to speak of. Her story doesn’t involve a massive wipeout or any hold downs. In fact, there’s no dramatic retelling of her experience. She’d cut her foot on the reef, but who doesn’t do exactly that on every trip to a tropical location? It turns out that reef cut wasn’t so innocent.
“I was fine and then legit a couple of hours after I landed back home in Sydney, I went for a swim in the hotel pool and my skin was just feeling so irritated,” Ottaway told The Daily Mail.
She then collapsed while out shopping with her parents, who rushed her to the hospital. That’s when doctors found the seemingly innocuous reef cut had caused a bone infection. Her symptoms were a high fever and pain, but even worse, they worried the infection was going to develop into septicemia — blood poisoning by germs such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. At its worst, septicemia can cause organ failure and even death.
Doctors reportedly weren’t shy about the worst case possibility of death and actually considered amputating her foot. Olivia’s trip to Tahiti turned into a three-week stay in an Australian hospital. She thankfully turned a corner and started to recover. She did, however, develop osteomyelitis and was told she’d be out of the water for months.
Ottaway is still on the road to recovery, according to the Daily Mail, but she obviously avoided the worst-case scenario.
“I kind of feel like, I’m kind of happy it all happened in a way. Not happy I guess, I still wish I was all 100 percent, but that’s life,” she said.
