DEFENDER Phil Davis has opened up about his kidney injury that doctors described as "up there with the worst" they had seen and more significant than those suffered by people in car crashes.

It all started with a seemingly innocuous knee to Davis' kidney from Sydney Swan Craig Bird in the first quarter of Greater Western Sydney's round one victory on March 15.

The contact didn't even leave a mark, but unbeknown to Davis he had suffered lacerations to his kidney.

Over the course of his two-week ordeal, however, the 23-year-old would experience delirium and hallucinations and at one stage beg doctors to remove the organ so he could just ease the pain and get some sleep.

"I don't even have a bruise," Davis said on Monday during his first trip back to the club since the injury.

"I just got the perfect point of his knee – the right angle, the right time.

"It was pretty scary because the specialist said it was up there with the worst kidney damage he'd ever seen.

"It smashed the back end of the kidney, it was all mushy at the back, and split a few of the arteries."

During the long first quarter break caused by an intense storm in Sydney, Davis spoke to club doctors about some discomfort he was feeling, and at first they thought he'd broken a rib.

Happy to play on, he got through the game and performed brilliantly on Swans superstar Lance Franklin, before heading the short distance over to the club's base at Tom Wills Oval.

"I got halfway up the path and saw one of the physios and I was on my haunches," Davis said.

Davis' blood pressure was low and an ambulance was called, beginning a sequence of events that would lead to two bouts of surgery, eight days in intensive care and self doubts about whether he would play again.

But he is now on the road to recovery and able to tell his remarkable story.





Being such a fit, young athlete, Davis' body has a mechanism where it adapts to trauma and settles the blood pressure, initially leading paramedics to think his issue wasn't that serious.

Yet GWS doctor Joe Lombardo insisted Davis be taken to Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, which has one of the best urology departments in the country.

Initial tests were normal, but at around 5am the morning after the game he went to the bathroom and "passed around 700ml of pure blood".

"A CT scan showed a fair bit of damage and I had a massive hematoma (a collection of blood outside a blood vessel) already, bigger than a football," Davis said.

"When I crashed I had about 12-to-15 people all around me, putting lines in me. It was pretty scary."

Unsure of what was happening, Davis' partner Coco – a fifth-year medical student – was able to translate some of what they were saying as doctors prepared him for surgery.

Then began a three-hour surgery to fix a number of lacerations on the kidney.

"The whole time I was so scared because they said 'if we can't stop the bleeding, we're going to have to knock you out and take your kidney out'," he said.

"I was in the surgery awake thinking 'don't you dare come near me with a gas mask to put me to sleep, because I'll know what that means'."

He got through the surgery, but by 5pm that night the kidney had started bleeding again and he crashed once more.

Doctors had put 18 bags of blood products – platelets, plasma and red blood cells – into him and he wasn't getting better.

"I waited and waited and they gave me every chance because obviously I wanted to keep my kidney," he said.

"Not only for football but for life after.

"The easy option after the first sign of re-bleeding would've been to take it out.

"I think it was Monday morning and one doctor said 'you're losing your kidney'.

"But the other specialist said 'no, it's 50-50 still, we still think you're a chance, but we have to go back into surgery'."

This time, he asked to be sedated so he wouldn't have the stress of knowing the kidney was going to be removed. This time, he wouldn't know until he woke up what direction the surgeon had taken.

Before the second bout of surgery, however, he and his mother Jane came to the same conclusion.

"We were pretty emotional at that stage and I was just praying I wasn't going to lose it, but it was pretty realistic I was going to lose my kidney," he said.

"I asked mum to take a photo of my stomach while I didn't have a big scar.

"Then I was out to sleep and woke up 14 hours later and I still had a kidney."













Phil Davis celebrates after the victory against the Swans. He was soon in intensive care. Picture: AFL Media





But Davis' ordeal was far from over.

Over the ensuing days he had a complication with his lungs, where the bottom part of his lungs stopped working.

He estimates that during the eight days he spent in the intensive care unit, he only had about 20 hours of sleep.

That led to the delirium and hallucinations, although thankfully he had his mum and girlfriend at his bedside for the worst of it.

He left hospital last Thursday and has started taking walks, told by doctors he can start running, lifting weights and swimming in the next two weeks.

What they don't know is when he can start contact work.

The Giants are planning to talk to the Geelong Football Club, to see what the Cats went through after Tom Lonergan's injury that ultimately led to his kidney being removed.

They are also going to speak to specialists in the United States from the NFL, who have more research on the issue.

Davis is "too scared" to jump onto scales, although he feels he has lost about five kilograms.

He is on antibiotics and needs to have his blood pressure taken each week to monitor his recovery.

He is looking forward to being able to drive and fly again in the coming weeks as his life returns to normal.

And he will be seen out on the field in GWS colours again.

"I'll play footy again, definitely," he said.

"Obviously there will be some mental challenges when Icome back … but I'm pretty excited about when that time will come."