'Thought I was dead': Dane Swan details harrowing health scare
AFL icon Dane Swan has opened up about a recent virus nightmare that left the 37-year-old's partner thinking he was dead.
The 258-game AFL legend revealed in November that he was moving to the United States with his partner Taylor Wilson and their son Tate.
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However, the former Brownlow Medallist says it was upon returning to Australia after a trip to Mexico that he became worryingly ill.
Swan said he'd enjoyed his time in North America with family and friends but joked that it "all came crashing down when I died that night,” on his Hump Day with Swanny and Friends podcast.
The Collingwood legend - who retired from the AFL in 2016 - began his story by explaining a condition that he's suffered from for several years.
“I have to preface it by saying, I don’t vomit much but when I do... I actually had to ask the club doctor about it," Swan said.
"I vomit that hard that the circulation gets cut off to my brain and I pass out and I hit the deck.
“You think I’m joking but it’s legitimate.
“We figured it out a while ago and now I have to lay on the floor when I spew and vomit. (My partner) Taylor was in tears, she thought I was dead.
“I legitimately had to ask the club doctor. It happened in Bali ages ago when I passed out at the toilet and smashed my face on the toilet bowl. It’s happened seven or eight times in my 10 years so I don’t spew much but when I do, it’s the end of me.”
Swan said his son became sick after the family returned to the States from Mexico, and believes that's how he contracted the virus.
“We got back from Mexico and I was feeling alright, just the s***s and stuff like that, and then I woke up in the middle of the night and thought ‘f***, I’m not well here’. I have to vomit and get rid of this. You think this is funny — Taylor was in tears,” he said.
“I laid down, then I spewed and she reckons I went stiff and my eyes rolled in the back of my head for 20 seconds, I didn’t move and was convulsing and I wasn’t breathing so she thought I was dead. Then I woke up in sweats.
“I thought if that’s the way I go, it’s pretty easy. I spewed and that was it so I wasn’t in pain. I just vomited so if that’s the way I go then I’ll be pretty happy with that.”
Dane Swan insists virus was 'legit'
The AFL larrikin insisted that the horror illness was not self-inflicted.
“This was a legit virus. This wasn’t self-induced, this wasn’t Mad Monday stuff. It was a legit virus … but it wasn’t the Covid virus.”
Swan recovered in time for this year's Super Bowl in Los Angeles but said he passed up the chance to attend the spectacle, in order to go to a Hollywood party instead.
“I didn’t go to Super Bowl … I’m not Eddie McGuire, I don’t have ten hundreds of millions of dollars, and I don’t get a free ride like Thommo (Dale Thomas) for a company that’s not Sportsbet,’’ he said.
“My mates bought tickets and they were about $12,000 each. I’ve been before and I’ve been away on holidays for 3-4 months and probably gone over budget just a smidgen.
“It was (son) Tate’s birthday, (thought) I’ll just go to a party, I went to a mate’s party in the Hollywood Hills.”
Swan - who has been openly critical of Victoria's Covid-19 lockdowns - has since returned to Australia after what he described as one of the "hardest" processes he's ever experienced.
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