Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Australian national treasure Dawn Fraser has revealed how close she has come to death … on two occasions.
The Olympic legend suffered a nasty fall at her Noosa home last December which landed her in ICU with multiple injuries.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Dawn Fraser opens up on tough recovery from fall.
The 87-year-old swimming champion has also revealed that weeks after that incident her heart stopped in another terrifying ordeal.
Fraser tripped on an unfinished driveway at her home, breaking her ribs and a major hip bone. She was hen rushed to hospital.
“When the anaesthetist came in, he said that I could die … And that was the frightening part, the fact that I might die under anaesthetic, and I didn’t want to die that way,” she told Channel 10.
At the time Fraser gave her daughter, Dawn-Lorraine Fraser, the power to make medical decisions for her.
“The anaesthetist came in … and asked, ‘did I give my daughter consent?’ I said, ‘Yes, I did.’”
The anaesthetist then asked Dawn-Lorraine a staggering question.
”(They said) I want to know if I have to resuscitate her, and I said, ‘Are you serious?’…,” Dawn-Lorraine told 7NEWS last year.
“Yes, you will resuscitate her; my mother is a fighter and you will make sure you do everything to save her.”
Fraser is widely considered to be one of Australia’s greatest sportspeople.
And when they took her into surgery, her message to the staff was crystal clear. “I’m going to fight,” she said.
Dawn-Lorraine said the doctor told her that her mother probably would not survive.
She responded: “This is Dawn Fraser. She’s not just an 87-year-old. She is tough. I know my mother.’”
While Dawn survived, a few weeks later she suffered a scary heart issue.
“I was at the meeting at the surf club, and we’d finished, and I went downstairs to get a lift home,” she said.
“Unfortunately, I started to feel very faint, and I fainted. I was unconscious for 5-7 seconds, and I vomited everywhere, and I just didn’t understand what had gone wrong.
“The ambulance took me to Noosa Hospital … they said that my heart had stopped for five seconds, and I had a very low heart rate.
“The doctor came in and said, ‘I’m putting a pacemaker in,’ because we’d had a few stoppages of the heart … I’ve had the pacemaker in there for eight weeks … and he saved my life.”
She said was still facing several issues and every day was a battle.
“I can still shower myself and take myself to the bathroom, but I can’t make my own bed or open many doors,” she said.
“It’s a fight every day, but at least I’m doing it.
“Some days I feel 87. Other days, I don’t … I lost a lot of strength and weight, but I’m fighting to get it back.”
