In something of a shock and eyebrow raiser given the deadliness of the disease, Fox News Channel personality John Roberts shared a life update on X in which he described his fight against malaria, a fight that required him to spend nearly a week in the hospital to shake off the notoriously deadly disease.
As background, while malaria was once a worldwide issue that caused an immense number of deaths, now most of the developed world’s countries have managed to generally eradicate it, though developing regions like Africa still struggle mightily with the malaria problem. About 600,000 deaths come from it every year, and throughout history, it has been one of the primary killers, alongside smallpox and tuberculosis.
Roberts, in any case, took to X on the morning of Sunday, August 31, to describe his fight with the deadly disease and thank all of those who had managed to help him receive the life-saving medical care he needed to survive the bout with the generally mosquito-carried disease. He indicated that he got it from a mosquito.
Beginning the post, Roberts noted that he had spent nearly a week in the hospital fighting off the disease, and hoped to be able to head home on Sunday, assuming treatment goes well. He said, “God willing, after 5 days and 6 nights at Inova Fairfax, I hope to be heading back home to my family today.”
Continuing, he started thanking the many people who helped him muddle through without dying. Beginning that portion by thanking the physicians who helped out, he said, “I have so many people to thank, beginning with my ‘Tehrani twins ‘… Doctors @MahsaTehrani8 and Behnam who are not only superb physicians, but dear friends and tenacious advocates as well.”
Building on that, he thanked another physician and the many nurses who helped him get better, saying, “Thanks too to pulmonologist Matt Williams and all of the compassionate nurses and technicians at
@InovaHealth Genevieve, Claire, Lauren, Daniel, Yvonne, Anar, Raysa (who finally found a good new vein for an IV when all the others said “enough”) and the countless others behind the scenes who assisted in my recovery.”
Then, thanking his wife for finding a malaria expert on the other side of the world, something that took much effort and might have saved his life by providing an experienced, guiding hand that helped him recover. He said, “But most of all – thank you to my beloved wife @KyraPhillips, who found global malaria expert Dr Doug Postels in Malawi who served as a guiding hand through all of this.”
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Next, commenting on malaria generally before again claiming he was ok, Roberts said, “Malaria is an awful disease that needs to be attacked full-force when a diagnosis is made. In my time here, I’ve gone from being so sick that any dog would take pity on me to being ready to fire up the grill on Labor Day (well,maybe ready to watch the grill bring fired up).”
Concluding, he again thanked the many people who had proved so instrumental in his recovery before commenting on the attached picture of a mosquito and telling all his readers to stay away from them, writing, “Again, my most heartfelt thanks, and I look forward to getting back in the saddle. Just stay away from these little effers….”
Featured image credit: By Jim Gathany – This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #5814.