How a ‘bad cold’ led to a 33-year-old Canadian powerlifter being on life support

What’s the worst that could happen after catching a cold? You feel sick for a few days, assumed 33-year-old  Jared Maynard. However, he soon realised that he had been mistaken. What the Canadian powerlifter thought was a short bout of illness turned out to be just “the beginning of a nightmare.”

The father-of-three was diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal autoimmune disorder at the beginning of 2023 after he and his wife and daughters caught a “mild cold” and recovered within a week, but he couldn’t.

Gradually, Jared’s condition worsened. His skin took on a yellow hue, and he began experiencing delirium and organ failure, People reported.

Soon, he was admitted to a hospital with doctors beginning to believe they had no choice but to administer palliative or end-of-life care, The Sun reported.

But how did the tables turn for Maynard? Here’s what we know

What was the rare autoimmune disease?

Jared was diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a severe inflammatory syndrome that occurs after a strong activation of the immune system.

As per the Cleveland Clinic, when one has the condition, the immune system produces too many cells and instead of fighting the infection, the new cells attacks the body and make one even more ill.

There are two types of HLH, one that is triggered by genetics and one that is triggered by an infection. In Maynard’s case, it was a response to the mononucleosis infection-also known as “kissing disease” caused by the Epstein-Barr virus.

Maynard recalled his lymph nodes swelled to the point where they felt like “mountain ranges” under his skin, and his liver and kidneys ceased functioning, as per The Sun.

As per Hopkins Medicine, swollen lymph nodes and organ failures are among the many other symptoms of the auto-immune condition in which, one experiences an anti-biotic resistant fever, rashes, jaundice (yellow color of skin and eyes), lung problems, including coughing and difficulty breathing and digestive problems, including stomachache, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

‘Miracle Man’

Maynard told The Sun, that he was placed on heavy sedatives and does not recall the time he was diagnosed with the condition. After spending six days in the hospital, doctors put Maynard on life support.

Mayard had bleak chances of survival but in a miracle turnaround, Maynard did recover.

“During those weeks on life support, I was too ill to receive much nutrition through the feeding tube that was inserted,” he said.

“My fight had begun,” he told People, adding that HLH “devastated" his body.

Maynard was put on a ventilator and dialysis, remaining in the hospital for three and a half months in which said his weight plummeted by over 40 pounds.

“I was admitted to the hospital weighing 193 pounds and woke up in the ICU weighing about 150 pounds. That meant that my body had to rely on the muscle I already had to sustain me.”

He said, “[I] was struggling to hold my phone up on my own.⁠ As a powerlifter, it felt like I’d been completely body-swapped.⁠”

Despite the standard treatment for HLH involving a regimen of chemotherapy drugs, Maynard’s weakened state precluded full administration of the therapy. As per the Cleveland Clinic, apart from chemotherapy, immunotherapy (drugs that affect your immune system), steroids (drugs that fight inflammation), antibiotic drugs and antiviral drugs are some treatments to HLH.

Maynard recalled his physicians even initiated palliative care, doubtful of his chances of survival. But to their suprise, he did.

“I began to recover after that last treatment, much to the surprise of the doctors and nurses in the ICU. It was enough to earn me the nickname ‘Miracle Man,’ in fact,” he told The Sun.

Maynard said his doctors credit his survival to the fitness and muscle mass he gained after years of weight training. “My doctors told me that without me being as fit and strong as I was going in, I likely wouldn’t have made it through,” he said.

Road to recovery

By, May 2023, Maynard made strides in his health, re-learning how to walk, sit, stand, and even breathe, speak and swallow again.

Despite everything, Maynard was determined to get his strength back for his wife and girls.

“Once I woke up in the ICU, I knew there was a long, long road ahead of me,” he had told his followers. “But I still had some fight left. I had a reason to fight, too. My wife and daughters needed me to come home.”

Maynard who still faces aftermath from the HLH diagnosis, he is still focused on rebuilding his strength. As a strength coach, weightlifting became his therapy.  He even competed in his first powerlifting competition since his diagnosis.

“I feel like me again, even though I have some new scars and mementos to remind me of where I’ve been,” he said.

Lifting 425 pounds again was a impressive achievement but picking up his own daughter felt like “a piece of my heart was restored”, Maynard said.

“I wish people knew that building muscle, strength, and physical resilience is the best life insurance policy you’ll ever take out,’ he said, adding, ‘It’s too easy to put yourself last on your list of priorities between work, school, kids and other obligations,” he said in The Sun.

“We all think we have time to get our act together until we don’t. I found that out the hard way,” he further added.  

With input from agencies