Marc Leishman had to withdraw from the 2015 Masters when he received a call that his wife was in the hospital. The news that awaited him was unimaginable, but that didn’t stop the Leishman family from persevering and coming out even better on the other side.
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let’s talk about Audrey a little bit
because uh you know you guys had a
pretty big scare sometime in 2015 right
this is when you withdrew from the
Masters was that time yeah it’s nine
years ago yeah it is so so it’s sepsis
and I know since then she’s obviously
now healthy and doing really great um
and you guys have started a foundation
called was it begin again or Begin Again
Foundation Begin Again Foundation yeah
and you guys are doing some amazing
stuff for it uh just talk us through
kind of how difficult obviously it was
during that time I mean I kind of saw on
the page that you had had your kids do
voice messages for her and it must have
been such
a just just such a difficult difficult
time to to go through yeah she was like
perfectly healthy and then within about
well three or four two three four days
um looked like she was not going to make
it so um yeah we had some difficult
conversations with doctors and that sort
of thing them giving us pretty bad news
um saying she probably wasn’t going to
make it and we had to try a few things
to um to try and help her but that she
probably still won’t make it it’ll be
just her her best chance of making it so
of course you you know you’re going to
go ahead and do that um but yeah there
was a few moments throughout the um the
whole Hospital stale I remember when
they put put her into the coma the first
day that she was in it she was actually
her eyes were open and she was texting
me um like to communicate because she
couldn’t talk she had the tube down her
throat and she was sedated and all that
um and that was after I had I’d had the
meeting with her with the doctor that
gave us the bad news and I go back into
the hospital room and she’s like am I
going to be okay and I had to blatantly
lie to her I’m like yes you’re going to
be fine but you’re going to have to
really fight like of course I’m not
going to tell her that no you’re you’re
actually staffed you’re probably you
know you’re probably gonna die um so
yeah there was some um some pretty hard
moments and then like you said about the
videos from from the kids my boys
were yeah I reckon
three three and and then about yeah
about that so when she was in the coma
the doctors were saying
like I’ve heard that you know a lot of
my patients say can hear what we’re
saying so I was playing music to her and
um yeah got the kids to to do videos so
she could hear their their voices and um
you know it was yeah it pretty weird you
know some some difficult phone calls to
to friends and family and and all that
um but you know in the end we were very
lucky cuz um obviously she survived it
and then um and she’s you know created
or we’ve created but mostly her the the
foundation where we’ve um helped
thousands of families given away I think
over two million dollars um to families
who really need it and a lot of good has
come out of it so we like to think that
um you know it happened to her because
she could survive it and she was strong
enough to do that and and she had the
will and the and the background to
actually do some good things with it so
um yeah as as difficult as it was and um
you know she’s lost her memory and
everything a lot of her memory um is not
great but still but um yeah a lot of
good has come out of it and it’s really
given her a purpose to to her life um
you know after I I did get on to her in
200 or after we got married in 2010 she
actually she quit her job so she could
travel more and she was pretty lost for
a while um just not really knowing what
to do with herself and and this really
gave her a purpose so it’s I’d like to
think that lot more positives came out
of it than um you know than than
hardships I guess you you went through
absolute hell I mean that describing
that just I mean we’ve all had as you as
you progress through life you all you
always have those health carees or your
loved ones have health carees but not
many people have been through something
like that with the person you love the
most the most cherished in your life um
absent your kids um what did you learn
about yourself through that process it’s
a pretty weird feeling you know you you
do realize how strong you are um what
you can what you can go through how how
long you can go without sleeping um or
eating um but I guess you just um you
learn them how fragile life is and it
gives you a a really good perspective on
what really matters obviously every as a
parent you hope that your kids outlive
you and of course your parents pass or
you know whether it’s before you or
whenever that is that’s a that’s a
devastating um time and all that um but
something that you know you think will
probably happen before before you go
anyway if you know Audrey was to to pass
it was really going to change my life
like massively like you know I was
thinking when they told me the bad news
um that oh I’m thinking what am I going
to do like I’ve just had to withdraw
from the Masters which was fine that was
not you know that was the least of my
worries at at that time and then I’m
thinking well if she doesn’t make it
what do I do do I stay in America or do
I I was ready to pack up with the kids
and go back to Australia and just be a
dad full-time dad um you know whether
that was going to be forever or until I
got back on my feet or whatever it was I
was thinking too far ahead um but yeah
your your brain just races and I’ll tell
you what the best night sleep sleep I’ve
ever had was that first night after she
um we got told that she was going to be
all right and woke up from the coma so
you know I didn’t sleep for probably six
or seven days or couldn’t eat I remember
trying to eat just a I had a bite of a
grilled cheese sandwich I couldn’t even
swallow it I was struggling just making
really dumb mistakes like I’d you know
try and back out of a car park and knew
I was going to hit this car or pole it
was a pole and I just ran straight into
it didn’t even really react it was like
oh my revision Mar just smashed off on
the ground oh well let’s go um so it I
guess at that point you’re just like
delirious right yeah sleep deprivation
is a is a form of torture first of all
Audrey is an absolute trooper I I mean
to to fight and to get through it and
then to be on the other side doing what
she’s doing now to help other people is
amazing and and just so admirable and so
inspiring really but also what you did
to support her as well as your kids at
the time who were so young and that
they’re still so young but at the time
it’s got to be you probably got to be
looking oh my gosh I have Harvey who’s
three and olly who’s 18 months and
you’re like what do I do you know and so
for you
to go into that mode of of making sure
you’re there for your kids as well as
her it’s tough you know and and I’m
just like you said it’s it’s it’s
awesome that you guys are on the other
side now and you can see all the
positives I guess that came out of it um
for the for everyone who’s kind of
listening could you just maybe give us a
quick definition or or what is sepsis
just so people who are listening might
be could be aware of it uh maybe their
loved ones might be going through it
what what is it so sepsis is your body’s
overwhelming reaction to fighting an
infection so if you cut your finger um
you know it starts to starts to go red
around it and gets like py and all that
well your body fights that infection and
and takes it away so say seel Team Six
goes out to fight that infection that
cut on your arm or whatever it is well
instead of SEAL Team Six going out to
fight the infection and kill the kill
that infection the entire US military
goes out and kills everything so it
basically turns your blood toxic and um
and
sends basically shuts down all your
organs uh so people think that they’ve
got the flu um
you know you get sort of pale and clammy
skin and racing heart but a lot of
people that have it don’t know they’ve
got it and they’ll go to bed um and then
just not wake up the next morning so
Audrey wanted to go to bed and just
sleep it off and her her best friend um
made her go to the doctor and they put
her straight in and you know basically
saved her life so um yeah it’s you know
you can get it from any infection so men
and women can get it Audrey got hers
from um from a tampon um from the
chemicals in the tampon got inside her
body and got it that way so toxic shock
syndrome can lead to sepsis a lot
obviously sepsis is really bad I think
it kills about 300,000 Americans every
year and then that led to to acute
respiratory distress syndrome uh ODS
which is so pneumonia is a spot of fluid
on on the bottom of your or anywhere in
your lungs but normally on the bottom of
your lungs ODS is when you’re lung are
both lungs are full of fluid so they she
had what was called a white out so when
her you know your lungs are normally
black on a on an X-ray um hers were
white because of all the fluid so it was
yeah long answer but it’s um it’s pretty
severe but if you suspect you’ve got it
um it’s very treatable if you especially
if you catch it early so that’s what we
do a lot with um with our foundation is
is awareness like getting out the
symptoms because if you do know the
symptoms good chance you’re going to
catch it it’s just some antibiotics and
normally you’re pretty you know you’re
good to go Audrey’s actually had it
since but it was she caught it early um
she had it probably I think it was about
a year after she got it the first time
and you know treated it and good to go
wasn’t even a hospital stay thanks for
sharing all that by the way um I didn’t
mean to bring this podcast to a an a
place but I just thought it would be
kind of it’s just such a big part of
what you went through
and your family went through and um you
know and as you said now you guys are
doing amazing things for it and and I
just wanted you to kind of share that
and so that whoever is listening in who
might maybe be in the same shoes or
might be experiencing the same sort of
situation be able to kind of relate and
awareness awareness awareness awareness
a lot of lies a lot of a lot ofes
whether it’s or anything yes yeah now
begin again uh you guys are also not
just raising money but you are also
providing support right for for families
and people who are going through it yeah
yeah all sorts of things to families and
then we do um you know support the local
children all the children’s hospitals
around the world we haven’t set told
anyone but we’ve we’ve been doing um a
program where at all the live tour stops
where we provide safe Sanitary products
to like homeless ladies um so we’re
doing that at I think we’ve done it at
most of the the stops last year and this
year Audrey know knows a lot more about
that than I do but um yeah we’re trying
to sort of expand which is nice we sort
of lives been we can well we can give
more now because we’re making more money
yeah so it’s a win-win
