Rugby coach Henno Venter saved from meningitis by his wife

irmingham & Solihull Bees coach Henno Venter is back from the brink after being stricken by deadly brain bug meningitis.

And it is thanks to his pregnant wife’s quick thinking.

Within a handful of hours, the Birmingham and Solihull Club coach’s light headache had mutated into a pain so severe that he was screaming out.

“It was as if someone was putting their hands inside my head and squeezing my brains,” said the South African-born athlete.

Looking at her husband, bed-ridden and unable to bear sunlight, wife Michelle – a fundraiser for the Meningitis Trust – knew exactly what deadly virus was sweeping through Henno.

With the clock ticking, she drove the 32-year-old from their Coventry home to Walsgrave Hospital.

Medics say it is thanks to her swift actions that Henno is now on the road to recovery, although still gripped by constant dizziness.

The ordeal has shed two stone from his muscular frame.

Henno, who also coaches rugby at Warwick Boys School, said: “She knows I have a lot to thank her for – her and her whole family. My wife is a fighter, she knew what to do.”

Thanks to Michelle, the virus could be purged from his body before it turned into the killer bacterial strain of the disease.

After four days in hospital, some of it on an isolation ward, he was fit enough – but only just – to return to his family.

Now Henno and Michelle, 35, want to use their harrowing experience to raise awareness of the disease, particularly its symptoms.

Do not, they stressed, wait for a rash – Henno didn’t have one.

“When it comes to the head, particularly for sports people, don’t take things lightly,” said the Bees player-coach.

“I thought I had a rugby injury, but after a day I should have contacted someone about it.”

For Henno – the former Natal Sharks second row who moved to England in 2003 – meningitis struck swiftly and without warning.

He was fit enough to play on Saturday September 7 but a nagging headache surfaced the following day.

It became progressively worse, but despite being in near agony, Henno made it to a school sports session on the following Tuesday.

“It was bad,” he admitted. “The painkillers did nothing. It got to the point where I couldn’t take them anymore.

“By lunchtime, I had to go home. I could hardly see. I don’t know how I managed to get home.

“Despite a raging temperature, my hands and feet were like ice blocks.”

Henno’s condition plummeted to the point where he simply could not stand the light and could hardly talk.

Click here for more on this article.