Lee Freeman, 46, thought a diet change was the problem
A fitness model blamed the pineapple he’d eaten before a photoshoot for his agonising stomach pain — only to discover he was ‘hours from death’. Lee Freeman says he began suffering ‘excruciating’ stomach pains after dropping his son off at school last month.
The 46 year old initially suspected that reintroducing pineapple into his diet that morning ahead of a photoshoot was the cause of his discomfort. Lee said that within minutes of the pain starting, he was on the floor in the foetal position, writhing “like something from the Exorcist” in a desperate attempt to find relief.
The dad-of-one said his fiancée called 111 and he was advised to go to A&E straight away. Once there, the pain continued to intensify, becoming so unbearable that he was “punching himself in the face” while sitting in the waiting room.
Rating his pain at “100 out of 10”, Lee was admitted to hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with a twisted bowel and rushed into emergency surgery on Sunday, February 8. Lee claims doctors told him he was “hours from death”, but believes his exceptional fitness and healthy lifestyle ultimately saved his life and prevented him from needing a colostomy bag.
Doctors reportedly told him he was simply unlucky and that the twisted bowel was a freak occurrence. He says the scar on his stomach was “heartbreaking” as his “abs were his business card”, but he now hopes to use the ordeal to motivate others.
Lee, from Sheffield, said: “I’d taken my son to school and I came home and I had a call with a client. I got to the end of the call and I started thinking ‘my stomach is really hurting’, the pain just started getting worse and worse.
“I was in the lounge in the foetal position just trying to get this pain to go away. I was like The Exorcist, climbing up the couch trying to find some position to ease the pain.
“My fiancée called 111 and they said ‘you need to get him to A&E now’ and booked us an appointment. The pain was that bad in AandE that I was physically punching myself in the face. It was that excruciating that I would have knocked myself clean out to get rid of the pain.”
The self-employed fitness, nutrition and mindset coach admitted he initially attributed the agony to reintroducing pineapple into his diet that morning.
Lee said: “Pineapple is full of digestive enzymes and I’d started a bit of a new diet plan to prepare for a photoshoot. I decided to start putting a bit of pineapple back into my diet to help with digestion.
“I’d only eaten a tiny amount, probably about half a tin. When we were in the hospital, my fiancée was like ‘it must have been that pineapple’.”
Following two days of tests, Lee was eventually diagnosed with a twisted bowel and rushed into emergency surgery. Between 15cm and 18cm of his small intestine had to be removed, owing to the severity of the disease and inflammation.
Lee said: “A nurse came round and asked me my pain level and I told her it was 100/100. The surgeon felt around my stomach and said ‘we need to get him to surgery now’.
“They tried to go in keyhole, but within seconds of him opening me up, he had to pretty much slice me open from the middle of my stomach to the top of my pubic bone. He managed to get the twisted, diseased, part of the bowel out and somehow saved me from having a colostomy bag, which I could never be more grateful for.
“The nurses said if I wasn’t as fit and healthy, I probably wouldn’t have survived that and would have had a colostomy bag. After that, I had to stay in hospital for 11 days.”
Now recuperating at home, Lee says the scar on his stomach has left him “heartbroken” because of his profession.
Lee said: “The scar is a bit of a mess, which is heartbreaking as a fitness model. My body is my business card, but I’m going to try to use that to empower people – to show people the scar, to show them that it’s okay and it’s a sign of survival.
“I feel like a completely different man because I’ve lost so much weight, I’ve gone from 86kg to 71kg. But I’ve managed to start walking again, I did a 15-minute walk on the treadmill this week.”
Lee is now determined to channel his ordeal into motivating others.
He explained: “I’m trying to use it in a positive way to inspire other people to be fit and healthy and to inspire people to take action. We’re under this illusion that we get another 24 hours from the bank of life at midnight every night, but we don’t.
“We spend so much time moaning and blaming and complaining and getting bogged down on things that aren’t important and not looking at ourselves. This has shown me that can be taken from you at any second, I could have just died there and then.
“Life isn’t a dress rehearsal. You don’t get two chances, this is it.
“Every day live like it’s your last day because the reality is, it could be – without any warning. My abs were my business card and now they’ve got this monumental huge gaping scar down the middle. I just have to stay positive and do what I can.”
