John Burgess is counting his blessings after a miraculous recovery from blood poisoning that left him fighting for his life in hospital, admitting he’s incredibly lucky to still be alive after collapsing in his Perth home.
“I’m still here,” the TV game show king tells Woman’s Day. “But yes, it was a bit of a shock!”
If it wasn’t for the quick action of his wife Jan and one of their sons, Burgo, 79, reckons he may not still be around to tell the tale.
“I was lucky. It was a bacterial infection, and we still don’t know how I got it.”
(Image: Alana Landsberry)“I was lucky. It was a bacterial infection, and we still don’t know how I got it, but thankfully doctors were onto it straight away,” he says, admitting if Jan hadn’t called an ambulance when he was struck down with a mystery illness, later confirmed as sepsis, he would have died.
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John revealed last week that he almost died in February when he was struck down with the killer condition after experiencing mild flu-like conditions.
“At first I felt maybe a bit nauseous, bit drowsy, achy in the joints and pretty soon I just felt like I was going to throw up,” he told The Courier-Mail.
“That was at seven o’clock in the morning and by 7.30am I couldn’t get off the toilet, so my second son had to lift me off the toilet and carry me into the bedroom. I just thought, like most blokes do, ‘I’ll be OK, I’ll just take a couple of Panadol.'”
“Sepsis can kill you in no time!”
(Image:Alana Landsberry)But with John, who famously hosted game shows like Wheel Of Fortune and Catchphrase, almost unconscious on his bed, Jan “thankfully” called an ambulance.
“As soon as I was rushed to hospital they did a blood test and discovered I had sepsis… and sepsis can kill you in no time!” he says.
John is slowly recovering from his ordeal but says, like many people who suffer sepsis, he is still experiencing symptoms, including hair loss and low energy levels. But he hasn’t let it or his advancing age slow him down too much.
“I’m in the studio today,” he tells Woman’s Day, to reassure his many fans.
But then this showbiz legend has the stamina of a much younger man, and still looks remarkable, having barely aged since he finished his celebrated hosting role on Wheel Of Fortune in 1996.
It’s a face and voice that’s been a part of the Australian TV and radio landscape for the past 58 years and when he revealed that he was in hospital, John was flooded with messages of love and support from devoted fans of the man they call the “game show king”.
If it hadn’t been for a chance meeting with another legend, radio star John Laws, in 1959, he may never have reached those dizzy heights of fame.
“Lawsy” overheard the one-time wannabe pro tennis player, who became a professional tenpin bowler here and in the US, chatting up a “good sort” at the now-defunct St Leonards Bowl in Sydney.
He instantly recognised that Burgo had a great voice for radio, and the pair became close mates, with John mentoring Burgo, who often came into his 2GB studio to learn presenting skills from the master.
He landed a job in 1965 at Sydney radio station 2UW, where he was nicknamed “Baby John Burgess” before moving into TV a few years later, working on a music show called Turning On, while still on the airwaves in Sydney and Melbourne.
John worked alongside with Adriana Xenides on Wheel of Fortune.
(Image: Wheel of Fortune)His big break came in the 1970s when the late media mogul Kerry Packer asked him to host breakfast on Perth radio station 6PM, where he remained as the number one breakfast announcer for the next decade.
It proved to be a great launching pad for his TV career, with John becoming a household name around the country in 1984 when he became a familiar face on Wheel Of Fortune with the glamorous Adriana Xenides, who sadly died aged just 54 in 2010.
“It’s nice to make people happy,” he recently told 9Honey. “And I think the way I conducted myself was not patronising or anything, and I never offended anybody, and I think that’s the secret to why I have lasted as long as I have.”
