“Nearly killed me:” John Burgess opens up about his brush with death

John Burgess, one of Australia’s most popular television game show hosts, has opened up about his recent sepsis battle.

Burgess explained how the symptoms started appearing when he started to fall into the habit of sleeping without warning.

“I kept passing out and I felt very unwell. It all happened very quickly in the space of a day or two. As soon as I was rushed to hospital they did a blood test and discovered I had sepsis,” Burgess told A Current Affair.

According to the Centre for  Disease Control and Prevention, sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when your body has an unusually severe response to an infection. Other symptoms may include fever, trouble breathing, low blood pressure, a rapid heart rate and mental confusion.

The 78-year-old was fortunate, though, with doctors catching the illness just in time.

“It nearly killed me, any longer and my organs would have started to shut down,” he said.

“Sepsis can kill you in no time. I was lucky. It is a bacterial infection and we still don’t know how I got it, but thankfully doctors were on to it straight away.”

Burgess was taken to the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Perth Hospital on February 2 where he stayed for a week before getting the all-clear from the staff.

Since being discharged from the hospital, the former television host continues to recover from his near-fatal battle with the illness but is back on hosting duties at Perth’s 6iX radio station and is thankful for the endless support from his fans.

“I’m a disc jockey and a game show host but apparently I’ve touched quite a few people over the years,” he said.

“It’s been a long time, but nice to know they care about you.”

Burgess is best known for his long-running stint as presenter of the popular game show Wheel of Fortune from the 1980s to the 1990s. He later hosted the Australian version of Catchphrase for Channel Nine, later renamed Burgo’s Catch Phrase.