Taylor Harris at his first year of American College Basketball.
Taylor Harris’ life changed in an instant.
The fit and healthy 20-year-old went from living out his American college basketball dreams to fighting for survival with just a 3% chance of living.
Harris was home in Tauranga during the off-season and was gearing up for his second season of college basketball when what started as a sore throat in June spiralled into the toughest battle of his life.
Harris and his mum, Kat Roberts, brushed off the early symptoms, both describing it as the classic Kiwi “she’ll be right” attitude.
“I didn’t want to bother the doctors because we were told it was a viral illness,” she said.
Harris laughed, recalling how he had been bragging to his mum the week before about how he hadn’t been sick for ages.
Roberts said he went to A&E, where he was diagnosed with influenza and sent home.
That night, Harris woke up to his throat being dangerously swollen. Roberts rushed him to Tauranga Hospital, and he was quickly admitted to ICU and then rushed to surgery for airway support.
“If Taylor hadn’t woken me that night, he would have died,” Roberts said.
Tests revealed he had invasive group A streptococcus and influenza, which further developed into sepsis, spreading into his chest. He was helicoptered, unconscious, to Waikato Hospital for specialist care.
In New Zealand, sepsis kills more people than lung, breast, and bowel cancer combined, according to the Sepsis Trust.
“We were told he was the sickest patient in the hospital,” Roberts said.
“I drove behind, praying he would still be alive when I arrived at Waikato.”
Emergency surgery followed to drain the infection. Harris’ tight-knit family was told to prepare for the worst.
Harris initially stabilised, but everybody’s relief was short-lived. Within 24 hours of being moved from ICU to a ward, his condition regressed. He was rushed back into intensive care in a critical condition and was further diagnosed with severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
His lungs were failing.
Harris was coughing blood, turning purple and gasping for air.
The family were told to say their goodbyes.
“I cried until I couldn’t breathe; it was the worst moment of my life,” Roberts said.
Harris’ girlfriend of four years, Bri McGrory, was also there.
“It was one of the scariest nights of my life, just full of unknowns,” she said.
“Everything happened so suddenly and escalated all of a sudden.”
Against all odds, Harris stabilised. The following afternoon, he woke up, joking with his family and confused by the tears in everyone’s eyes.
Harris, who was in and out of consciousness, doesn’t remember too much.
“I didn’t understand how bad it had gotten,” he said.
“One thing that is so crazy to me is that everyone tells me how strong I was, but it was really Mum and Bri that went through the worst of it.”
However, his fight was far from over. After a hospital transfer back to Tauranga, his chest infection worsened. He made the trip back to Waikato for more surgeries, enduring weeks of antibiotics and fighting endless fevers.
“There was something every day, either a fever, or my infection markers on my blood tests never came back right,” Harris said, admitting that sepsis wrecked his body.
Roberts said it was inspiring to see her son’s positivity through such a brutal ordeal.
“He came back from college at the best I have ever seen him, and now it’s been taken away. A lot of kids his age would be in bed depressed about this outcome, but Taylor is using it as motivation to keep going,” she said.
Roberts is calling for others to be more aware of the signs of sepsis, which, according to Sepsis Trust NZ, include confusion, extreme shivering and breathlessness and muscle pain.
Now back home, Taylor and Kat have put all their energy into recovery. Together, they are working on a business venture developing bone broth protein powder, which helps support gut health.
“You’ve got to find ways to stay positive in such a negative and angry situation,” said Roberts.
For Harris, the experience has completely shifted his outlook.
“Don’t take anything for granted,” he said.
“I was on top of the world, doing everything I’d put my mind to, and it all came crashing down.”
If recovery goes well, Taylor will head back to America in January, at a new school and with a coach that he describes as “perfect”.