Christian Pese's story

It was a normal game day for Christian Pese, representing the South Island in the NZRL National 20s tournament. It was the first game of the tournament, and his whanau were excited to watch him from home in Auckland as the game played live on Sky Sport.

Everything was going normally, when in the last ten minutes of the game, Christian began feeling dizzy.

Christian’s manager, Mel, saw that something was wrong.

“I just noticed Christian grab his shoulder and I said to our trainer, ‘Oh, Christian must have hurt his shoulder,’ but then he grabbed his left shoulder again and crumpled down.”

At this point, they realised something was very wrong. The game was stopped by the ref, and the trainers rushed onto the field to assess Christian.

“At this stage, we didn’t really know what we were dealing with."

Unbeknown to her and everyone else, Christian was having a stroke.

While assessing Christian, his trainers noted that his speech was slurred, making it difficult to understand him. He was taken off the field immediately, straight to the ambulance to be assessed by the onsite paramedics.

“He was in and out of consciousness. I said, ‘Christian, squeeze my hands and he only squeezed one, not the left side.”

Christian was put into a medically induced coma and rushed to the hospital, where things continued to go downhill.

Christian’s parents in Auckland, Korey and Joanne were watching the game live on TV and knew that something serious had happened to their son. With manager Mel on the phone updating them on what was happening, they raced to find a flight and reach the hospital in Christchurch as quickly as possible. Doctors advised them to bring the rest of their family to say goodbye, as things were looking grim.

Christian’s brain was swelling into the right side of his skull, causing intense pain and pressure, and threatening his life. To relieve this, doctors had to remove half of his skull on the right side, a procedure that they were not sure he would survive.

Christian’s South Island 20s coach Archie and manager Mel were able to stay by his bedside until his parents arrived the following morning.

“There’s always the assumption that it had something to do with the game, but when the results came back, the doctors were saying they couldn’t find any signs of trauma.”

Archie, like everyone else, was shocked when he found out that what Christian had experienced was a stroke.

“He was only 18, extremely fit, we didn’t think in a million years we were dealing with a stroke.”

Fortunately for Christian, his surgery was successful, but there was still a lot more for him to face.

“I couldn’t move, and when I heard it was a stroke, I was scared.”

Christian’s Nana had been left fully paralysed after a stroke in the past, so he was afraid he was facing the same outcome.

While Christian was not paralysed, doctors initially told him he might not be able to walk again.

“That lit a fire in me to prove them wrong and get up on my feet and start walking. I kept pushing with all my physio and my rehab and doing my best to get the movement back in my hands.”

Christian told coach Archie “I’ll be back for next year’s 20s”, and he meant it. During his recovery, he pushed hard, slowly regaining the movement in first his left hand and arm, then his legs.

“There were lots of little changes we started to see, and everyone was getting excited."

Before he could get back into action though, there was another step he had to take on his road to recovery. Christian had heart surgery in early 2022 to fix a hole in his heart. After recovering from the surgery, he was determined to get back into shape as soon as possible. The club, along with family members and friends, were hesitant at the idea of him getting back into the sport so soon. But Christian had his mind made up.

“I wanted to give back to the club and varsity for all the support they gave me last year.”

In the winter of 2022, Christian is now back playing varsity, along with some rugby on the weekends. He now plans to chase his dreams across the Tasman, reconnecting with his whanau over there and getting back into the league.

“I’m still young, I’ve got youth on my side so I still have the same opportunities, I just have to work hard to get back to that same level and hopefully I can find a pathway to reach my goals.”

Christian considers himself extremely lucky to have had close to a full recovery.

“Before it happened, I almost knew nothing about strokes and the signs. I never thought anything like that would happen to me because I was always in good shape and tried to stay healthy.”

His message to the world is to learn and recognise the signs of a stroke.

“The longer it takes for you to find help, the worse the effects could be. Take action, be quick and get help as soon as you can."