Quit your way in May: South Australian cricket legend Darren Lehmann opens up on heart scare

On his 50th birthday, former Australian cricket coach Darren Lehmann woke in a cold sweat. It was the start of a chaotic four-hour period which changed his life.

Darren Lehmann poses alongside the bronze statue of him at Adelaide Oval in 2012. Picture: Ben Macmahon (AAP)

Darren Lehmann said there had been no warning signs.

The South Australian cricket legend and former Test batsman and Australian coach was in a Gold Coast hotel room preparing to celebrate his 50th birthday on February 5 last year, when he felt like he had been hit with a sledgehammer.

“I woke up at 4.30am on my birthday in a cold sweat, with chest pains and I had trouble breathing,’’ Lehmann recalled.

“I was on the Gold Coast to watch my son Jake play for the Cricket Australia XI against the England Lions and we’d had dinner together the night before.

“My wife (Andrea) and (other) kids were coming down from Brisbane on my birthday for a dinner that night to celebrate my 50th, so it was going to be a good day.

“But I woke up in a bad way, with the cold sweats and a real heavy chest. I felt like someone was standing on my chest, and thought, this isn’t good.

“So I thought I’d grab a cigarette, a dart, like I normally did in the morning.

“But I didn’t feel like putting the cigarette in my mouth, so I knew I was in trouble.

“I rang the hotel doctor, who in turn rang an ambulance, and the ambos arrived quickly.

“Within 20 minutes I had been given a drug called GTN, which is designed to widen the arteries to allow blood to flow better while also helping you to breathe more easily.

“I had three sprays five minutes apart and after that I felt great. I said ‘thanks very much lads, I’m good, seeya later’.

“I went to grab a cigarette and they said, ‘no, no, don’t touch it, that’s the worst thing you can do, you’re coming with us’.’’

Former Australian cricket coach Darren Lehmann has experienced serious health scares with a life-threatening blood clot condition. Picture: Jerad Williams

Lehmann, nicknamed “Boof’’, was rushed to the emergency department of Gold Coast Private Hospital. Within an hour he’d had an angiogram, and an hour later he was booked in for triple-bypass heart surgery.

“It was a chaotic four-hour period from 4.30 to 8.30am,’’ Lehmann said. “I’d gone from going to bed in good spirits to waking up feeling crook, to being checked by ambulance staff, to being raced to hospital and undergoing tests, while at the same time messaging my wife to say don’t come to the hotel, go to the hospital, because I need a triple-bypass.

“It was the big wake-up call that we all dread.’’

Angiograms revealed significant blockages in three of Lehmann’s coronary arteries.

He was transferred to The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, the city where he has lived for 10 years following his appointment as Queensland Bulls coach in 2011, and underwent surgery two days later.

“I had blocked arteries everywhere,’’ said Lehmann, who in a 20-year first-class career from 1987-2007 became the highest Sheffield Shield run-scorer of all-time, making an extraordinary 13,635 runs at an average of 54.97, with 45 centuries and 51 fifties.

Despite spending three years with Victoria from 1990-91 to 1992-93, Lehmann is SA’s leading run-scorer, with an incredible 11,622 runs at 56.97 in 119 matches.

He has been immortalised with a bronze statue at Adelaide Oval which recognises his achievements.

Lehmann, posing with his bronze statue, woke with chest pains on his 50th birthday. Picture: Ben Macmahon

Lehmann, a loveable larrikin who by his own admission had “not always made the best choices for my health’’, spent a week in hospital recovering from the surgery that saved his life and the next three months regaining his strength.

But the mental recovery would take longer.

Darren Lehmann spoke to The Advertiser about his quitting smoking journey as part of a four-part, weekly series to promote the Quit your way in May campaign. It is designed to encourage South Australian smokers to take a key step in improving their health by having a go at quitting smoking during the month of May.

Originally published as Quit your way in May: South Australian cricket legend Darren Lehmann opens up on heart scare