Sunrise co-host Nat Barr has spoken candidly about a traumatic health scare that she endured as a teenager, revealing that she almost lost the ability to walk.
The surprise confession came during an interview with Sunday Life magazine, the 55-year-old opening up about her life-changing ordeal for the first time.
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According to Nat, when she was just 15 she was forced to spend two months in a hospital bed to avoid being paralysed forever.
“I got really sick with a disease in my spine called osteomyelitis,” she revealed.
“The bug had eaten two of my vertebrae and they were crumbling.”
“I’d had back pain and saw a physio who wrote to my doctor; I never saw what was in the note but that night I ended up in [the] hospital, [and] an orthopedic surgeon [told] me: ‘Lie down, or you’ll never sit up again.’
“I didn’t sit up again for months.”
For those unaware, osteomyelitis is a life-threatening condition that causes inflammation or swelling in the bone.
It is caused by a type of bacteria found on the skin – the staphylococcus bacteria – and can spread the blood to other bones in your body.
If left untreated, the condition can lead to permanent damage and even death, with a one-in-five mortality rate
Nat continued to describe her harrowing ordeal and painful recovery process, detailing her experience of receiving a lumbar puncture – a painful procedure that sees a needle inserted directly inserted into the spinal canal.
“It was traumatic – I didn’t know if I’d be able to walk again.”
“It was a really defining moment in my life because I was 15 years old and old enough to think, “I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this situation.”
Thankfully, Nat is well today and recovered fully with no lasting spinal damage, but admits that it was still a difficult time after missing a term of school and taking some time to recover her full strength.
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