The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Chris Cairns would be the first to tell you he is a lucky man.
“It felt like a really bad hangover, that’s the best way to describe it,” said Cairns on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast, having had no indication other than some family history, that he would be spending the next eight days in a battle for his life.
Cairns had suffered an aortic dissection, which is when tears occur in the body’s main artery, the aorta, and if undiagnosed can be extremely damaging.
After two heart surgeries in Canberra, he was then airlifted to Sydney and transferred to intensive care where two further surgeries were performed.
The former Blackcap awoke to a very different world to the one he had nearly left for good; Covid had reared its ugly head in Sydney, and Afghanistan was overrun by the Taliban.
Cairns’ own world had also been changed forever. He had suffered complications during surgery, which led to a spinal stroke, resulting in paralysis in his legs.
“The trauma on the body, there was a blood clot that decided to go south and went into the spine,” he told Mike Hosking.
There are no guarantees of recovery, but Cairns says that’s the real battle that lies ahead.
“Will it come back? That’s the unknown, mate, too be honest and that’s the battle now.”
Rehabilitation will be a long road and Cairns is realistic, but says he has to change his mindset as he begins work to get his body moving again.
“I’ve always considered myself goal-driven and destination-driven. Muscles and bones take six weeks to heal and you come back. With the whole nerve and neural aspect, it’s very much a journey and a direction focus.”
He says the outpouring of well wishes and opportunity to connect and re-connect with those who have supported him has been a big lift.
“One thing that I've been really thankful for is the reaching out of the cricket community.”