November 24, 2024 was a night that changed the life of young Bombers fan Will Grosveld as he knew it then.
On holiday in Queensland with his family, Will suffered an extended Laryngospasm episode, essentially cutting off his airways, causing him to suffocate and sending his body into respiratory arrest.
It’s an event no one would ever want to witness for their child and in the case of Will's loving parents Jay and Michelle, they can definitely attest to that.
“His vocal cords suddenly shut and he was just completely suffocated – he died in our arms then and there. We performed CPR on him for 12 minutes and got him back,” Jay and Michelle said.
“He was taken to Children’s ICU in a coma and with a breathing ventilator. He spent the next seven days in this state with two unsuccessful attempts of waking him. We didn’t know his brain function or damage at that time due to the hypoxia.”
“Once he was successfully woken, he was in a vegetative state for about a week due to the sedation and potential brain damage.”
By the time Will was finally awake, he was faced with the challenge of having to re-learn and teach himself everything – walking, talking, eating - all over again.
Thankfully for the diehard young Don, he had a pretty handy tactic to keep his spirits up (and keep his number retention up to scratch).
“He would lay in bed and watch replays of Bombers games over and over, he absolutely loves them,” Jay and Michelle said.
“It got to a point where he could talk again, one day we just wrote numbers 1–30 on a white board in front of him and started to ask him who wore the number.
“Number one, Andy McGrath, number two, Sam Draper at the time, number three, Darcy Parish. You could literally see his brain start to fire and re-connect with itself. He was back.
“The doctors started running all of their tests again, he was able to eat right away after that, his brain function was completely back. After that we were discharged within a couple of days and allowed to come back home to Victoria.”
After hearing of Will’s story last week, the Bombers welcomed him with open arms to meet the boys at Captain’s Run – in particular, his two favourite players in Zach Merrett and Nate Caddy.
It was there that Merrett surprised Will with a spot in the Guard of Honour for the Saturday clash against Brisbane, capping off an exciting week for the inspiring youngster.
