Former boxer Jeff Fenech battling pneumonia in Thailand hospital
Boxing legend Jeff Fenech feared he would die after being rushed to a Thailand hospital with a serious lung infection, which had him coughing up blood. His family is now in a desperate fight to get him home in time for his daughter’s wedding.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australian boxing legend Jeff Fenech is battling pneumonia in the intensive care unit of a Thailand hospital.
A three-time world champion, Fenech was rushed to intensive care on Friday night and said he was later told by doctors he was close to dying.
Fenech, 55, has contracted pneumonia with doctors concerned enough to inject him with three intravenous drips.
He told The Sunday Telegraph he was ‘shaking, sweating and could barely talk through delirium’.
He hasn’t slept for six days and is coughing up blood.
Fenech is unsure when he will be discharged with wife, Suzee, ready to board a flight to Bangkok. Aside from pneumonia, Fenech has severe pain in his shoulder, legs and is also fighting a lung infection.
“I have never been in this pain in my life,” Fenech said.
“Every night I have been here I think I’m not going to wake up tomorrow.”
MORE NEWS
Drought to cost ex-NRL star his dairy farm
Sky’s the limit as Sydney’s bars take to rooftops
Fenech travelled to Thailand last Tuesday with about 10 of his boxers, including Brock Jarvis and Nader Hamden, for a training camp.
His health deteriorated at their hotel on Friday night with his boxers urgently ringing an ambulance. He was taken directly to intensive care and has a high temperature and low blood pressure.
“I’m in ICU in the emergency ward,” Fenech said. “My lungs are gone. I’m in all this pain. I wanted to rest (at the hotel). I hadn’t been out of the room. I said to the boys: “Let me rest, let me rest’.
“Then all of a sudden, the ambulance came. The lady: ‘I can’t tell you what would have happened if you didn’t come to hospital’. It wouldn’t have been good news.
“The pain, brother, you don’t know. I can’t sleep I’m in that much pain, I can’t roll, I can’t move. I am coughing up blood.”
Fenech’s family desperately want him home for daughter Jessica’s wedding on Saturday week.
A Hall of Fame boxing champion, Fenech complained to Suzee last Sunday he couldn’t move his arms.
“He was shivering and sweating before he left. He shouldn’t have gone but he didn’t want to let the boys down,” Suzee said. “I could see the pain on his face. I’ve seen him sick before but not like this.
“The boys had to get him into an ambulance. He was rushed to intensive care. I just want him back home. I want to go over there and told him we can come home together but he keeps saying: ‘No, no, I’m okay’.
“Brock rang me and said if we didn’t force him to go in the ambulance, it’s really scary to think what would have happened to him. Who knows what would have happened.
“He has been ringing me all night. He sounds like he is in so much pain. I have been with him for 24 years and never seen in this kind of situation. It’s awful, really scary.
“They have taken all these tests. It’s the high temperature that they’re worried about.
How is he going to fly back on Tuesday with the boys?”
Suzee was yesterday waiting for the boxers visit Fenech again and put a doctor on the phone for more information.
Fenech visited doctors twice last week in Sydney and was given a cortisone injection in both shoulders.