Brain aneurysm, staph infection and heart murmur turn young gun’s life upside down.
Danny Weidler - Sydney Morning Herald
19th September 2021 5:00am
“It was pretty scary; everything just happening so fast – and then one thing after the other was pretty hard to process,” Bulldog Tuipulotu Katoa said from his hospital bed on Saturday.
There have been a lot of difficult stories to come out of the Bulldogs camp this year, but none compare to what one of their young players is going through.
Katoa is a promising player and the brother of Sharks star Sione Katoa, but right now he is fighting a battle far bigger than football.
On Friday, the NSW Blues under-20s representative had surgery after an aneurysm was found on his brain. That shock came just days after he was told he will need open-heart surgery.
All of this only came to light after the 22-year-old was admitted to hospital because of another serious health problem.
Katoa fell ill while in the Bulldogs’ team bubble on the Gold Coast. He was subsequently admitted to hospital with what developed into a staph infection. Staphylococcus aureus is a common bacterium that lives on the skin, or in the nose, and is also called golden staph. In most situations, it is harmless, but if it enters the body through a cut in the skin, it can be deadly.
It is unclear how it got into Katoa’s blood but a possibility is through a minor cut on his knee. While medical staff were discovering the infection, they also found Katoa had a heart murmur and, as a result, he had an ultrasound.
Doctors put Katoa on a course of antibiotics, which they hope will prove helpful in dealing with the infection, but it’s a long road. The best-case scenario is that Katoa will need six more weeks of intravenous antibiotics. If all the bacteria is gone, he could then return slowly to training, but it will need to be over eight weeks.
Once he reaches that point, there is still plenty more for him to get through. Doctors will need to ascertain if his heart valves are able to handle intense aerobic activity. Katoa will require surgery in two weeks if the antibiotics don’t work to clear the bacteria, or possibly in three months on his heart valves.
The reality is that even if he successfully returns to the football field, he will eventually require open-heart surgery (likely in about three to four years) to fix the valves. That surgery would force him out of all sport for at least a year. And that would be possible only if the valves can handle high-level aerobic activity.
Katoa was absorbing all that information when he received another setback while in hospital: an MRI picked up the aneurysm on his brain. He had been complaining of bad headaches and underwent surgery on Friday to have a stent inserted. He is being cared for and watched over by the entire Bulldogs organisation. General manager Phil Gould, chief executive Aaron Warburton and footy manager Steve Litvensky are doing all they can for him.
“Tui has been through a terrible time over the past few weeks, but has faced the challenges with determination and a smile,” Gould said. “Our absolute priority is to get Tui healthy again and back to his family. His surgery this week went very well. We are hopeful they have this serious infection under control.
“Tui will then be assessed as to whether he requires more surgery to address any damage caused by the infection. Obviously, the players can’t get to see him in hospital at the moment, but they are able to keep in contact and support Tui through messages. He has been unbelievably tough and positive through the whole ordeal.”
The footy world wishes him a speedy recovery.
