James Hall was rushed to hospital in Leeds after suffering two back-to-back seizures that saw him slip into an 18-hour coma and doctors warned his family four terrible outcomes
A bodybuilder competed onstage just days after waking from a coma in a marvel defying doctors’ claims he may never wake up.
James Hall was inches from death but rose to the stage bronzed and shredded just 12 days after coming around. The 32-year-old flexed and posed in the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation’s Northern (BNBF) Championship despite being unconscious in a high-dependency ward just two weeks earlier.
James, from Moortown, Leeds, had been training for the competition for a year when he suffered two seizures in the same day back on August 13, during what’s known by competitors as “peak week” in the direct run-up, when diet and fitness regimes are at their strictest. despite his epilepsy, the intelligence analyst had been drinking large amounts of decaffeinated coffee and water – with the frequent toilet trips depleting his body of vital electrolytes.
Feeling horrendous, James then cycled to his gym to train, pushing himself over the final hurdle in a bid to honour the “dying wish” of his granddad, Leeds United legend Bill Fotherby. James told Leeds Live he then suffered an epileptic fit after training, with the gym owner driving him to a nearby health centre in a panic.
“To this day, I have no memory of what happened during that stretch of period,” he said. Worried health staff transferred James to nearby St James’ Hospital, where doctors told his family he’d suffered two back-to-back seizures in a “gravely serious” turn of events.
James’ sodium levels were at potentially fatal levels of 116mg, and doctors said there was a possibility he may never wake up or could even lose his memory. “I shouldn’t be here today,” he said. “The odds of me being able to survive that from what the doctors were alluding to is ridiculous.”
In a miracle, James woke the following morning feeling better. While forced to scrap his competition he was readying for that weekend, giving himself 12 days to recover and prepare for his show in Manchester, even taking time off for a wedding.
“It was wonderful. Thankfully, I don’t get shy on stage. I have no worries about stepping in front of large audiences and presenting. I’ve done it for dance and multiple things. Just the fact I’d even made it to the show on the day, I didn’t have a care in the world. There were people I was competing with who were twice the size of me. They were huge! I felt like a little kid next to them, but I had come from death to be there that day when the odds were against me, so I honestly just didn’t care. I was so elated and happy.”
