To the MRI and Greater Manchester Ambulance Service: Thank you for saving my life

Gordo Manchester 13 February 2025

A personal note from Mark Garner of Confidentials

At the start of January, after three weeks of what I thought was the flu, things took a serious turn.

On a Saturday night, I found myself at home with a dangerously high temperature and, alarmingly, the sudden loss of control over my limbs. Crawling to turn the radiators down, then to the bathroom, I lost balance, hit my head and arm on the basin, and was left dizzy and disoriented.

It took me nearly 50 minutes to crawl six metres to my phone and call emergency services. Within eight minutes, they arrived - coincidentally at the same time as my daughter, Georgina. I was rushed to hospital, where it turned out I had a rare biological virus attacking my kidneys and liver.

My heart rate had shot past 200, and, in a move that’s still hard to process, doctors had to stop and restart my heart. I was placed into a medically induced coma in the ICU at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

What followed was one of the most surreal and frightening experiences of my life. But thanks to the extraordinary team in the ICU, I was brought back after five days and, remarkably, started making progress.

I’m now fully out of danger, albeit spending an unexpected ‘holiday’ on the wards - and strangely enough, rather enjoying it.

The point of sharing this? To say, without sounding too sentimental or dramatic: thank you. To the paramedics, the MRI team, the ICU staff, and the wider NHS - you saved my life.

I owe you one, and I’ll spend the rest of my life finding ways to repay that debt across what is fast becoming one of the greatest regions in the world for food and booze. By the way, Tom and the team at Skof, well done! I was a bit preoccupied at the time!

Mark 'Gordo' Garner.

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