Blues centre in ICU after heart surgery

NEWS: Former Blues midfielder Matt Johnson is battling for his life after open-heart surgery.

According to the New Zealand media outlet Stuff, Johnson is in intensive care after open-heart surgery for rheumatic heart disease.

Rheumatic fever nearly claimed his life at 13, yet he showed a decade of fight to win a Melbourne Storm contract, then one with the Blues.

Johnson has a lengthy scar down the centre of his chest as a constant reminder of what he has faced and is facing again.

At just 26-year-old the Manurewa-raised player already had two heart operations.

His heart conditions had really disrupted his rugby career, as his Melbourne Storm days were cut short by the club after just nine months into a two-year deal. The club sat him down and told him they’d reassessed the risk posed by his heart condition - and it wasn’t one the club was comfortable with, Newsroom reported.

He was, he was told, being released on medical grounds.

An outstanding 2017 provincial season for Southland won him a 2018 contract with the Blues, but yet again his condition prevented him playing for the side.

It has been 13 years since a cardiologist found his heart was twice the size it should have been.

Rheumatic fever, attacks the heart’s valves. A leaking valve meant the heart was not draining blood properly, so it enlarged. Johnson received an aortic valve replacement from a 22-year-old donor who had died in a car accident.

However, nine weeks ago tragedy struck again.

He was taken to hospitals after he complained about 'fevers and stomach pains,'

Johnson's fiancée, Sky Sport commentator, presenter and rugby player Taylah Hodson-Tomokino, took to social media outlined the path to Johnson being placed in an induced coma.

"Nine weeks ago, Matty started getting fevers and stomach pains. After going to his GP, they couldn't find anything wrong," Hodson-Tomokino explained.

"Weeks went by and his symptoms were coming & going. Two weeks ago, we went to the hospital after Matty was shivering uncontrollably and had stomach pains."

Highlander Buxton Popoali'i is another Super Rugby player whose career was derailed by rheumatic fever.

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Source: Stuff