The former player started vomiting in the night and was rushed to hospital by his mother.
Geelong great Peter Riccardi has revealed his son, Osca, has gone through a serious and scary health issue.
Speaking on the podcast Beyond The Boundary, Riccardi said that Osca was put on life support after suffering a shock infection on the brain.
Osca, who was also at Geelong but delisted at the end of last year, became suddenly ill a fortnight ago.
“A couple of Sundays ago (Osca) came home, been out with a few of his mates, he’d been to the beach, went out for dinner, went out to play 10-pin bowling … and said he was going to bed,” Peter Riccardi, who played 288 games for the Cats, said.
“Then halfway through the night he was up, he was vomiting, he was feeling a bit crook … we just thought he was run down.
“But come lunchtime, he couldn’t talk, he could hardly walk.”
He said they were extremely “lucky” his wife, Mel, had stayed home from work that day, and she “rushed” Osca straight to hospital.
Osca had scans and a frightening discovery was made when some “swelling” on the brain was detected.
Riccardi said doctors also found out that Osca had a sinus infection and an ear infection and glandular fever all “rolled into one”.
“Whether the swim did something with his ears and went into his brain, I’m not 100 per cent sure, yet,” Riccardi said.
“They put him an induced coma for three days. He was in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for four days.
“But he’s back home now recovering … you wouldn’t know that two weeks ago, watching him on life support, and seeing him now, it’s amazing what they do in there.”
The podcast hosts asked Riccardi how “scary” was the situation for himself and Mel.
“It was, yeah … obviously they have got to prepare you for the worst (outcome),” Riccardi said.
“That was probably the worst thing to hear, because we didn’t know how he was going to come out of it.
“But again, like I said, if Mel had gone to work that day, he wouldn’t be here today.
“We’re pretty lucky, we’re pretty lucky.
“It must have been a mother’s intuition or mother’s instinct to stay at home that day.”
Peter Riccardi is a local star who became a Geelong great, winning a best and fairest in 1998.
In 2007 he was named on the half-forward flank in the VFL/AFL Italian team of the century.
Osca played at VFL level for Geelong but did not manage an AFL debut.
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