My baby boy’s fight for life. Tyson tells of torment.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
PAT SHEEHAN – THE SUN – THURSDAY 15th DECEMBER
TYSON FURY has spoken for the first time about the agony his family went through and his son battled for life.
The British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion admits he was a hopeless wreck as seven-week-old Prince came desperately close to dying.
All 6ft 9in and 17 stone of Fury shook with emotion when he revealed: “The doctors gave us 60-40 on whether he was going to pull through. “He was in intensive care for 2 weeks his heart rate kept going right down and it wasn’t looking very good. “You just don’t realise how much deep love you have for someone until they are about to die. “it really does hit you in the face, hits you harder and causes more hurt than any punch.”
Numb
Fury, 23, and wife Paris were numb with fear when their boy was admitted to the specialist children’s hospital in Sheffield last month with a breathing problem.
Prince stopped breathing THREE times as his tiny body fought for life in an incubator. Fury added “He was only seven weeks old and he contracted bronchiolitis. “My wife was running around screaming and crying. “Being the man of the family, I had to show some strength but there were many times when I felt like crying as well. “We prayed to God and God answered our prays. “I was looking at my new born son with pipes coming out of him everywhere.
“There seemed miles of wires and he was plugged into 3 or 4 machines. He was in serious trouble. “We were in dreadful situation with the possibility of losing a child – the worst thing than can happen to any parent”.
Yet the crisis that engulfed the Fury family had started with what Tyson dismissed as know more than a kid with a snotty nose. He said: “How wrong can one man be?
“I came home at night and he looked perfect to me.
“But Paris said, “No he’s stopped breathing he keeps stopping breathing”. “I thought don’t be daft. But when I looked at him again he was holding his breath for something like 40 seconds at a time, going blue in the face. “We phoned for the ambulance and, thankfully, they got to the house quickly. “They put a heart monitor on Prince and noticed his heart dash rate had gone really, really low. They put him on the breathing machine there and then. “He was in Doncaster hospital for a few days. But he looked fine as if nothing was wrong with him. “People told me he would be ok in a couple of days, so I left to take care of a bit of business back home. “I was at the house when the phone rang and it was my wife telling me to get to the hospital immediately because Prince had taken a turn for the worse. “I thought she was exaggerating. You know what women can be like… “But he was being rushed to the special care unit for children in Sheffield. “He was unconscious when I got there and I wasn’t expecting that at all. “He was in a pod with wires and tubes everywhere. I was expecting to see a snotty – nosed little baby. “When I’d left the other hospital he was ok but with a monitor testing his heart. “Then when I saw him a matter of hours later he was unconscious. He had lost a lot of weight and had black rings around his eyes. It was horrible. I went in to shock.”
Manchester based Fury insisted: “I was blaming Paris, my wife. I thought she had been exaggerating when she was on the phone to me but when I reached the hospital it was all too plan to see she wasn’t. “It was me being the dickhead. I felt like a plonker.”
The shock of seeing his frail son so close to losing his fight for life seeped into dad Fury’s bones. He never left his sons bedside for over a week. Fury explained: “I didn’t leave the hospital for 10 days. “Like so many other parents in the same position. I slept there, I ate there and I prayed there. “The staff in Sheffield were brilliant. How can you thank them enough when they’ve saved your son’s life?”
I an uncanny twist, Tyson also had to be rushed to hospital as a new – born baby and he two had to be resuscitated.
Amazing
He said: “When Prince gets older and he is a boxer and a champion, he will have a big story to tell like his dad as well. “The coincidence is amazing expect I was a new – born when my heart stopped 3 times and he was seven weeks old when it happened to him. “We nearly lost him 3 times. “Three times his heart stopped and three times the brilliant staff at the hospital pulled him through. “No one can put into words the sense of relief, the sheer joy. I felt like I had been in a training camp for two years.”
A smile spread across Fury’s face when he revealed he is planning a special celebration next year to mark his son’s recovery.
He said: “The secret is I’m getting married again next year. “I’m going to renew vows with my wife Paris and we are also going to get our two kids, daughter Venezuela and Prince, Christened as well.”
The miracle is that the young Prince will be there.
