Kellie Blizard
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Actually, no, corrects Sam Wallace, it was just the worst of times. When his wife Sarah was recently hospitalised with pneumonia and severe sepsis, the popular broadcaster was trying to hold the fort at home while he and son Brando, four, also recovered from influenza A. Then one of his twin daughters, Sienna, came down with chicken pox. The only ones winning were Cosette and the cat!
Now, six weeks later, as they welcome the Weekly into their “full noise” home on Auckland’s North Shore, Sarah is recovering well and hoping to get back to normal – “we just need these children to sleep again”.
The couple, who have been together 11 years, are always refreshingly candid when it comes to the reality of parenting three under five. In the week from hell, Sam, 42, admits being in survival-mode meant he let all the kids sleep with him in bed every night and subsequently undid three years of Sarah’s vigilant sleep training. It also made him realise how Father’s Day could have been so very different this year had Sarah’s sepsis rapidly led to organ failure.
“We’re so lucky we got the best-case scenario,” he reflects. “If Sarah had stayed at home another day and we hadn’t called an ambulance, she would have been in serious trouble.
Back on her feet after her hospital ordeal, Sarah is being showered with love by Sam and kids Brando and twins Cosette (left) and Sienna.
“You hear of people dying of pneumonia and you’re like, ‘That wouldn’t happen to me.’ And it genuinely almost happened to us.
“When someone you love gets that sick so quickly, it gives you a wake-up call in a range of different ways. It definitely gives you a new level of appreciation for your partner,” says Sam, smiling at Sarah. “First of all, you get a real whole-hearted look as a dad at what that stay-at-home journey is like… the unrelenting constantness of it.
It’s definitely easier being at work than at home!” For 40-year-old Sarah, who usually prides herself on being fit and healthy, it was a timely reminder that anyone can be struck down by the flu. “I hadn’t had the flu before, so when I went to the doctor, she reassured me I was okay and that I’d be feeling much worse if I did have the flu,” she tells.
“But even then my chest hurt. “It was scary the speed of my health going downhill. And I didn’t feel that, at 40, you go to the hospital for the flu – of course if you were 80, you’d do it without question.”
After spending 18 hours in bed for several days, Sarah continued to deteriorate while Sam juggled looking after the children, with support from his mum Judi and sister Amy, so he could go to work as Breakfast co-host on Coast FM. On the fourth night, at 9pm, with everyone settled in bed, a panicked Sarah woke up her husband, uttering, “I can’t breathe.” Sam’s sister Amy called an ambulance.
“She was deathly sick, like a shell,” tells Sam. “I think the sepsis had started.” Sepsis occurs when chemicals released in the bloodstream to fight an infection trigger inflammation throughout the body.
With no beds available at North Shore Hospital, Sarah was treated for the first night in the ambulance. “I was so dehydrated that the paramedics tried to find a vein to get fluids in and it wasn’t taking,” she recalls.
“But I was grateful that I was warm and safe in the ambulance, instead of trying to sit up in the Emergency Department waiting room, and that Amy was with me the whole time. “The next day, they did chest x-rays and I was diagnosed with pneumonia, then sepsis. There is a reactive protein where they measure how bad the infection is in your blood and sepsis is 200. I was 400.
“I was too ill to go to the bathroom. That first night in a hospital bed, the nurse said to me, ‘The bathroom is just down the hallway.’ It was only about 15 metres, but it felt like eight kilometres and I slid halfway there. It was just horrendous. I was pretty scared.”
Sarah was put on antibiotics, but they were slow to have an effect. Tells Sam, “Doctors told me, ‘If Sarah doesn’t get better, we’re going to have to put her on the pressurised breathing machine.’ Then I come to visit her the next day and she’s on the breathing machine. I was like, ‘Oh, no.’
“We were desperate for those sepsis levels to drop. It took two really bad days to see any sign of improvement.” When Sarah was at the height of her illness in hospital and Sam was thinking things couldn’t get worse, the twins’ daycare rang to say Sienna had come out in spots.
“That’s when I rang work to say I needed a week off,” explains Sam. “Sarah’s parents were on holiday in Australia at the time and felt so worried and helpless too.”
Now the fun-loving family is hoping it’s their time to “catch a break”. Sam injects his trademark humour into the situation. “Yeah, Sarah’s had eight days off in hospital, so I’m expecting something really good for Father’s Day, eh,” he says with a wink.
Sarah reminds her husband he’s going to be having a week’s holiday in Hawaii and Las Vegas for a radio station promotion – returning three days before Father’s Day – but she’s sure the kids will make some wonderful surprise creations for him to open.
As the devoted parents chat, two-and-half-year-old Cosette smooshes her dad’s face between her little hands and asks him to draw her a “wainbow”, so Sam gets right to work. On completion, he asks, “Do you like my rainbow?” She pauses before replying, “You didn’t make a wainbow, you made a chicken!” before laughing hysterically and wandering off to put on a rubber Frankenstein mask to scare us with. (“Our kids like Halloween more than Christmas!”)
Sienna, who had been sitting on Sarah’s lap quietly reading The Tiger Who Came to Tea, pipes up with “Daddddy… you’re a dirty turtle!” Their vocabulary and comic timing has come on in leaps and bounds this year, agrees Sarah. “At the shoot today, Cosi was getting really frustrated with taking photos and she tried to run away, saying, ‘You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!’
“They’ve also been trying to fool us recently, pretending to be each other. I didn’t think that would start until they were much older. But clearly they understand how to trick us. And I wonder what we’re in for down the track.” Adds Sam, “They’re complete opposites and really good friends too. They do, like all siblings, have little battles, but the twin bond is an incredible bond like no other. When one gets a treat, they’ll make sure the other will get one too. When one has a drink, they’ll bring the other’s drink bottle over. And then they’ll bite each other!”
Son Brando, who turns five in December, is a passionate bagpiper and swordsman, enthuses his dad. With a school visit already done, the youngster also recently chose to cut his shoulder-length hair to be just like his best mate Lachie (son of Sam’s radio colleague Toni Street.)
“His ability to soak up letters and literature is in stark contrast to mine,” adds Sam. “My parents failed me in that respect as I don’t think they read me any books…” To which his parents, Judi and Barry, sitting nearby at the kitchen bench, guffaw. “Oh, yes, you were so deprived, my son,” one of them laughs. Sam and Barry, who is in his seventies, have always been the best of mates, and enjoyed riding dirt and quad bikes together.
“Dad and I have always shared passions and even now we’ve got an off-road buggy that we race together, although it makes him vomit,” shares Sam.
“I thought Brando and I would find the same joy in cars and racing, but he really couldn’t care less. So now I find joy in the things that he likes, rather than him liking my hobbies. He really gravitates towards music and reading, or loves building stuff in the garage. I didn’t think I was a grown-up until I had a workbench like my dad with a vice and a grinder on it.
“And finally this year I got one. And so we spend hours making different wooden weapons, like the swords from his favourite movies Frozen and Chickenhare.”
Sam wants to be the same great role model for his kids as his dad Barry (right) was for him.
Sam says his parents have always been there for him at every turn and along with a tendency to find humour in any situation, those are the traits he most wants to emulate with his own children. When Barry – who is now in remission after being treated for prostate cancer five years ago – is asked to share memorable Father’s Days he had with his son, it’s clear where Sam’s dry wit comes from. “Oh, yeah, I was always showered with gifts from him and streamed with love,” jokes Barry.
“I remember I’d spend the whole weekend watching Sam’s high school test cricket games. Quite often he’d go out on the first ball, so I would have to sit there watching him watch cricket for two days!”
“We put off buying Sam cricket gear because we hoped he’d get sick of it and give up,” quips Judi, laughing. She also lets slip they still have his Cleo Bachelor of the Year poster on the wall at their home. Although it was more than 20 years ago, there’s probably a good chance shirtless Sam doesn’t look too dissimilar now.
Sam’s pumped with his new body (right). “I’m happy as long as I’ve been to the gym.”
Since last September, the radio star has undertaken a strict diet and training schedule that’s seen him reach a muscle-heavy 85kg. He explains, “I’m happy as long as I’ve been to the gym. That’s my hour to myself a day.”
Paying tribute to her husband, Sarah adds, “Even before his health journey, Sam’s always been the most patient, loving, playful dad. Now he has an amazing energy for the kids, even when he’s had a huge week of early work mornings. They run to him when he gets home.”
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