When Anna Gallo fell ill, she initially suspected food poisoning — but then she developed more alarming symptoms
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NEED TO KNOW
- Anna Gallo was on a dream skiing vacation in Japan with her partner when she fell ill and nearly died
- The 24-year-old Australian woman received a rare diagnosis with potentially “devastating” consequences
- She was in a coma for days as doctors gave her worried parents a grim prognosis
Anna Gallo feels "grateful" to be alive after suffering a sudden, near-death experience while on a dream skiing trip in Japan.
Earlier this month, the 24-year-old Australian woman and her partner, Liam McDonald, were wrapping up their trip to Japan — which had included lots of time on the slopes, sightseeing and visits to karaoke bars — when Anna suddenly fell ill, per Australian outlet ABC.
The couple was in their hotel room in Tokyo, preparing to fly home to Queensland that night, when Anna woke up shivering. She then began vomiting uncontrollably.
"I actually fainted on the toilet, which my partner woke up to. He thought I was basically dead, but he woke me up," Anna recalled to ABC, noting that she and Liam suspected she had food poisoning and hoped it would pass so that they could still make their evening flight.
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However, by 4 p.m. local time, four hours before their departure time, Liam noticed a rash of red spots spreading over Anna's body. "Everything went downhill very quickly," Anna told ABC.
The rash turned out to be a sign of septic shock, a serious medical condition that can occur when an infection in the body causes extremely low blood pressure and organ failure due to sepsis, per the Cleveland Clinic.
Liam called for an ambulance, and Anna was rushed to Tokyo's National Center for Global Health and Medicine, where doctors diagnosed her with meningococcal B, which had rapidly escalated into meningitis and septic shock.
"The ambulance said if [Liam] hadn't have got me there in two hours, I would have died," Anna told ABC.
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Anna fell into a coma for several days while doctors treated her with intravenous antibiotics. Meanwhile, Liam was relaying updates to Anna's worried parents, Ghis and Adrian Gallo, who were at home in Atherton, Australia.
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As Anna's condition worsened, they booked a flight to Tokyo, and during the eight-hour journey, they wondered whether their daughter would still be alive when they landed.
"We must have said to each other a hundred times, 'Is this real?' " Ghis told ABC. "It just didn't feel real."
When they finally made it to the hospital, the couple was met with grim news. A doctor told them that Anna might never wake up from her coma — and if she did manage to survive, there was a very high chance that she would have permanent brain damage.
"I was so angry that he even suggested it," Ghis remembered. "But I guess he had to."
Then, the following day, something incredible happened. Ghis and Adrian returned to the ICU and found Anna's room empty. Though they initially panicked, they soon learned that their daughter's condition had improved enough that she was moved out of intensive care.
"She was sitting in bed, her eyes were open, and the [intubation] tube was out," Ghis told ABC. "She was awake."
After spending more than two weeks in the hospital, Anna was discharged. But her recovery is far from over. She is still unable to walk due to necrotic lesions on her feet and legs.
The lesions will eventually heal, but the scarring will be permanent. Anna said the scars will serve as a reminder of just how lucky she is to be here.
"I'm just so grateful," she told ABC. "I'll definitely cherish every day from now on."
She hopes to return to her job at Australia's Griffith University — which she started just weeks before leaving for the ski trip — as soon as possible.
Paul Griffin, Mater Health Services' director of infectious diseases, told ABC that Anna's story is a reminder of the importance of meningococcal B vaccines, which are available for free in Queensland under a state-funded immunization program that was rolled out in March 2024.
"Because it's relatively rare, people perceive the risk as low," Griffin explained of the disease. "But the consequences can be devastating. We need as many people protected as we can."
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