Jordan Brook: 'My unborn son saved my life'
Jordan Brook and his girlfriend Sophie Kasaei are set to give birth to their first child, a son, in 10 weeks' time after a two-year fertility battle, and that made Jordan determined to survive viral meningitis and encephalitis.
Jordan Brook says his unborn son "saved [his] life".
The star fought viral meningitis and encephalitis - a serious and potentially life-threatening condition, in which the brain becomes inflamed - amid his partner Sophie Kasaei, being pregnant with their "miracle baby" after a two-year fertility battle.
And finally conceiving made Jordan - who, with the Geordie Shore star, is set to welcome their son into the world in 10 weeks' time - determined to survive the harrowing health ordeal, which left him days from death.
He told The Sun: "We have gone to hell and back trying to have a baby, and suddenly there was a real possibility I was going to die before my son was born.
"He saved my life because becoming a father was the one thing I held onto and never forgot – even when the virus was actively changing who I was."
The Only Way Is Essex alum, 31, left Accident and Emergency (A+E) "fit as a fiddle" after medics suggested that he was suffering from a migraine.
But two days later, he was rushed by ambulance to Basildon University Hospital, Essex, and doctors told Jordan it could be brain cancer before they diagnosed viral meningitis, which left him with "acute memory loss", unable to speak and in a wheelchair.
Jordan said: "If I hadn’t trusted my gut, I’d be dead.
"I’d gone from filming TV shows, running my barber business and preparing to be a dad to fighting for my life overnight.
"The viruses were causing my brain to swell at a hugely dangerous rate, and it was causing changes to my personality.
"There were times in hospital I didn’t even know who I was."
The star said his personality changed the more the virus attacked his brain, of which he described the agony to that of a "hot corkscrew being twisted into his brain".
Jordan continued: "There were times Sophie would come into the hospital, and I couldn’t speak to her because I wasn’t strong enough. My personality was changing in front of her.
"The frontal lobe of my brain was so swollen that it was pushing on the front of my skull. It was changing who I was. I would get frustrated and be aggressive. It was almost as if I was overstimulated with situations.
"I’d be taken in a wheelchair outside to get some fresh air, and I couldn’t handle it. I shouted at a member of the public to turn his phone down because I could hear what he was listening to.
"I was so scared and felt like a fish out of water. It was terrifying."
Jordan - who "became a shell of a man" - lauded Sophie, 36, for her support whilst being pregnant.
He said: "I didn’t think it was possible to love that girl anymore, but when you’re in hospital for 22 days, and you see how she turns up every single day while seven months’ pregnant and doesn’t turn her back on me, even when my personality is altered.
"I mean, that is incredible. I will love that girl forever."
On April 1, Jordan - who has dated Sophie since 2022 - was discharged from hospital, and the three-week stay has left him with chronic fatigue and deterioration of his leg muscles.
And the TV personality - whose recovery period could take "up to six months" - is waiting to find out if the scar tissue in his brain has caused permanent damage.
Jordan said: "At any given moment, it’s almost like I’ve been unplugged and there’s no power left, and I have to rest immediately.
"Having been in bed for that long, I’ve got a lot of deterioration of my muscles.
"I’m having problems with my legs at the minute and until I make a full recovery strength-wise.
"I won’t know whether that’s a muscular problem or a problem that’s in my brain because I’ve been told by doctors that there is scar tissue in my brain that can affect things.
"I’ve got repeat MRI and CT scans and blood tests ongoing. I’ve only been out of hospital for a week, so I’m far from out of the woods yet. I’ve been told recovery can take up to six months."
Jordan said his fight for survival has given him a "new lease of life" and that it has "changed me forever".
