‘He would have absolutely died’: Young dad Ben Pink’s survival is a Christmas miracle

The Adelaide father of two is home for Christmas - but not before doctors told him they’ve never seen a person survive a fight like his.

A few weeks ago Ben Pink’s life hung in the balance, his organs shutdown by the deadly flu bug.

His family didn’t know if the 29-year-old would pull through after a month in the Intensive Care Unit at Royal Adelaide Hospital.

But Mr Pink never gave up - and now, back at home, he can’t wait to celebrate Christmas with his partner Sarah Weston and their young daughters.

Mr Pink, who came close to death “three times” after he fell critically ill with the flu in October, said he owes everything to “incredible” medical staff.

He was on life support for more than five weeks after he developed bacterial pneumonia and his organs went into failure.

He said doctors told him that he was the longest surviving person to be connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine they’d seen.

Ben Pink, his partner Sarah, and their daughters, Daisy and Dahliah. Picture: Dean Martin

“He would have absolutely died without the machine,” said Michael Farquharson, an intensive care consultant at the RAH.

Mr Pink said he experienced a “bit of vomiting and a bit of coughing”.

“It turned out I had a collapsed lung at the time but I didn’t know it,” the Elizabeth Downs dad said.

Not long after, Mr Pink said his heart rate went “through the roof, my blood pressure was really low … I’d become septic”.

He was placed in an induced coma and connected to life support. Ms Weston, 28, said watching Mr Pink, who she has known most her life, be placed in a coma was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life”.

“The scariest part for me was not wanting to have to explain to the girls that he’s not coming home at all,” she said.

“Having to explain to the girls that when they’re older he’s not here.”

Ms Weston said she kept telling her children, two-year-old Daisy Weston and 10-month-old Dahliah Pink that their dad would be home soon.

While Ms Weston cared for their kids, Mr Pink faced death three times.

First, he fell into multi-organ failure then twice during his time on the ECMO machine Mr Pink’s lungs flooded with blood.

“I never said goodbye to Ben because I always knew deep down he wasn’t going anywhere, I just knew,” Ms Weston said.

“I always had faith but we definitely had very big conversations with doctors, scary conversations.”

Dr Farquharson said Mr Pink was “a very unusual case”.

“It is quite rare for someone so young to be so badly affected by these infections, so bad that he needed to be put onto a ventilator,” he said.

Mr Pink’s deterioration meant normal ventilation was not able to keep him alive. He was transferred from the Lyell McEwin to the RAH where he was placed onto an ECMO machine.

“Five weeks is a long time to be on ECMO and, despite having multiple life threatening challenges during this time, the care he received has meant that by the time his lungs recovered, he was strong enough to get out of hospital quickly.”

Mr Pink made it home last Friday, in time for Daisy’s second birthday on December 24.

“I couldn’t wait for that day,” he said.

“To see them and cuddle them in my own home was a different feeling altogether than laying in a hospital bed and having them barely able to touch me because I was so sore,” he said.

Ms Weston said the ICU doctors and nurses went above and beyond to care for her family during Mr Pink’s stay.

“They’ve been our shoulders to cry on, been our support systems … they’re incredible.”

But Mr Pink will be opening gifts with his daughters and partner on Christmas Day thanks to medical staff and a life support machine that saved his life.

The 29-year-old came close to death three times over the course of two months after he fell critically ill in October with the flu.

He was on life support for over five weeks after he developed bacterial pneumonia and his organs went into failure. He said doctors told him he was the longest surviving person to be connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine they’d seen.

“He would have absolutely died without the machine,” Michael Farquharson, intensive care consultant at the Royal Adelaide Hospital said.