Channel Seven star Kate McCarthy has detailed the life-threatening health scare after she collapsed at Melbourne Airport and was rushed to hospital.
The footy commentator and former AFLW player, 31, had been in Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final coverage before she was flown to Brisbane.
But ahead of her arrival back in Melbourne, two days after the Grand Final, Kate began feeling unwell on her flight.
‘On the plane I was really, really sick, vomiting, it was not very pleasant at all,’ she said, according to the Herald Sun.
The sports star added that she sat in the terminal at Melbourne Airport in an attempt to feel better before asking one of the airline crew medical help.
‘They called an ambulance for me. I thought an ambulance was a bit excessive, but it was probably really lucky in the end that they did call one because by the time it arrived I was lying on the ground and not in a very good way at all,’ she continued.
Kate, who played AFLW for Brisbane, St Kilda and Hawthorn, was quickly connected to monitors by paramedics.
It wasn’t long before she went into Ventricular Tachycardia — a life-threatening and fast abnormal heart rhythm — and was rushed to hospital.
Channel Seven star Kate McCarthy has detailed the life-threatening health scare after she collapsed at Melbourne Airport and was rushed to hospital
‘The paramedics started to be quite urgent,’ Kate said.
‘They put defib pads on me straight away and drew up adrenaline as well, but thankfully I came out of the rhythm myself after two to three minutes.
‘I was taken to Royal Melbourne and was there for three days having tests.’
Doctors told Kate they had no idea why she suffered the harrowing ordeal and will be undergoing follow up tests with a cardiologist.
Last month, she was elated when Brisbane’s AFLW team beat the Adelaide Crows in a two-point thriller on home soil – but then McCarthy was floored by her ongoing health battle at the airport on Monday, September 30.
Kate McCarthy – who has a heart condition – had a scare after a Ventricular tachycardia (VT) episode on Monday
‘When the @brisbanelions and @lionsaflw double over the weekend sends you into ventricular tachycardia [a type of abnormal heart rhythm, or arrhythmia],’ McCarthy wrote on social media.
‘On the mend now, but Monday night review shows pacemaker performing like the Swans on the big stage.’
The scare comes as McCarthy has had a pacemaker since the age of 12 due to childhood seizures.
McCarthy was initially diagnosed with an ‘intermittent 3’ heart blockage as a toddler, and eventually had a pacemaker inserted in high school.
‘An ambulance came, and I had a seizure in the ambulance, then another one in the emergency department. I think I had seven seizures that day,’ McCarthy previously told the AthletesVoice.
In her AFLW playing days, Kate McCarthy was an All-Australian representative when on the books of the Brisbane Lions
‘When I had my seizures, I would lose consciousness for about 20 or 30 seconds when the seizure was happening, then come back to after that.
‘I think the most concerning thing for Mum and Dad was that I was really into sport — I did triathlons, so lots of swimming and bike riding.
‘They were really worried about what would happen if something happened while I was swimming or bike riding.
‘So I had emergency surgery the next day and they put a pacemaker in, and it was all fixed up from there. It’s never happened since then.’
A qualified teacher, McCarthy represented the Lions, St Kilda and Hawthorn before finishing up her AFLW career in 2022.
She is now widely considered a rising star of footy media and is a key figure on Channel 7’s AFL and AFLW coverage.
McCarthy is earning plenty of plaudits co-hosting panel shows Armchair Experts and Talking W.