Scott, 34, Faces a Sudden and Frightening Health Crisis at Work

At 34, Adelaide carpenter Scott Kingston Mayne had no warning that an ordinary day was about to become a fight for survival.

He had recently completed another AFL season and was looking ahead to the future with his girlfriend, Lara, 29. The couple were planning to buy their first home and start a family.

Instead, on the morning of August 18, a routine job at a marina in Brunswick Heads, northern NSW, was interrupted by sudden, agonising pain in Scott’s jaw—the first sign of a medical crisis that would leave him fighting for his life.

Within hours, he would be transferred between two hospitals and placed in an induced coma as surgeons carried out an extraordinary 18-hour operation. Lara and Scott’s family were left waiting anxiously for news.

More than three weeks on, Scott is only beginning to understand what happened. He effectively lost two weeks of his life and woke to learn how close his seemingly normal workday had come to ending in tragedy.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lara said there had been no indication that her partner was about to become critically ill when he left for work that morning.

Scott was digging up pavers at the job site when, at about 9am, he was struck by intense pain in his jaw.

The pain soon spread into his chest, then moved through his back towards his stomach. Frightened, Scott called Lara and asked what he should do.

Lara, a nurse and midwife, immediately recognised that the symptoms might signal something serious and told him not to take any risks.

‘I had a bit of an inkling that it was something really bad. He was freaking out,’ she recalled.

By remarkable coincidence, Scott was working with his colleague Matt that morning. He usually worked alone and often travelled to jobs in rural areas of the state.

Lara instructed him to call an ambulance, then got into her car and drove to Brunswick Heads, arriving soon after paramedics.

Scott was taken to Tweed Hospital, where blood tests and CT scans revealed a severe aortic dissection—a tear in the body’s main artery.

The gravity of the diagnosis became clear to Lara almost immediately. After Scott’s scan, the radiologist emerged and told her it was a ‘full dissection’.

Because she had cared for patients with similar conditions as a nurse, Lara understood how dangerous the situation could be.

‘I know exactly what that means,’ she said.

‘I’ve looked after patients that have been in that situation. I was like, “How the hell is this our life?”‘

What made the diagnosis even harder to comprehend was that Scott had appeared to be the picture of health before that morning.

Lara described him as someone who was constantly active, saying he had recently completed another season of AFL and was rarely ever sitting still.

Scott could not recall experiencing any concerning symptoms in the preceding months either, and there is no known family history of the condition.

With time critical, he was transferred by ambulance from Tweed Hospital to Gold Coast University Hospital, where he was taken straight into surgery.

He remained conscious and able to talk throughout the transfer and until doctors placed him into an induced coma, before surgeons began an extraordinary operation that would ultimately last 18 hours.

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The couple had moved from Adelaide to Lennox Head almost two years earlier and had no family living nearby, leaving Lara to make a series of difficult phone calls to Scott’s loved ones as he was being rushed to the Gold Coast.

Afterwards, Scott needed to remain on a bypass machine for his heart before he spent 10 days in an induced coma as his body began the huge task of recovering.

Despite the enormity of what he has endured, Lara said Scott is now ‘absolutely smashing goals’ in his recovery, although the previously energetic carpenter remains significantly weaker after spending so long confined to a hospital bed.

The weakness has been particularly frustrating because he is left-handed and, as a carpenter, was accustomed to spending his days working with his hands.

His voice has also been affected, with Lara explaining that the nature of the surgery can impact the nerve leading to the vocal cords, while the breathing tube used during his treatment has also left the area swollen.

However, she said his voice is gradually becoming stronger and his recovery continues to move in the right direction each day.

While it remains difficult to know exactly how long Scott’s rehabilitation will take, doctor’s have estimated it could be between six months and a year before he is able to return to full working function.

‘It will probably just be a long road of getting him healthy and fit again,’ she said.

‘Slowly but surely.’

‘We’re extremely lucky and count our lucky stars every day that he’s here and that he’s getting better.’

Amid the hospital stays, rehabilitation and uncertainty, however, there have already been small moments that have made life feel a little more normal. 

After spending three weeks apart, Scott was recently reunited with the couple’s dog when she was allowed to visit him in hospital, something Lara described as a ‘very lovely’ moment.

And while their plans to return to Adelaide may have been unexpectedly delayed, Lara remains grateful that they still have the opportunity to make them happen. 

You can donate to Scott’s GoFundMe here.