Australian Survivor star Nick Iadanza has opened up about the terrifying moment his daughter Florence almost fell into a diabetic coma.
The reality TV star, 36, revealed his one-year-old daughter was being looked after by her grandmother when she suddenly began to struggle to breathe.
‘She had gone completely grey. She was gasping for breath and shaking. She started vomiting all over her room and my mother-in-law,’ he told The Advertiser.’It was the scariest night of our life.’
After rushing to their daughter’s side and taking her to the hospital, the parents were informed that her blood sugar level was immeasurably high and that she was close to falling into a diabetic coma.
Florence was administered insulin, transferred to ICU and was stabilised, despite being on ‘death’s door’ just thirty minutes prior.Nick shared all of the thoughts that were rushing through his head during the traumatic incident and the very real realisation that this was just the start of a longer health journey.
‘Not only are you trying to grapple with the immediacy of what’s happening in this moment but you’re also trying to grapple with the longevity of what’s going to happen, 10, 20 years down the track,’ he said of her illness.
Now, the young girl is adjusting well to her new reality as a diabetic and has taken to her treatments ‘like a duck to water’ her proud dad says.
At first, she was given five injections daily, however she now uses a patch that automatically supplies her with insulin when she needs it.
Nick married his university sweetheart Christine in 2017 and they have since welcomed three gorgeous children together, Paloma, Atticus and Florence.
The Survivor ‘superfan’, who put his wedding plans on hold in 2016 so that he could compete on Australian Survivor’s third season, previously revealed why he originally turned down a chance to star on Australian Survivor: All Stars in 2020.
Speaking with 10 Daily, he said: ‘I’d just had a kid and we were in the middle of a renovation – and the house looked like a bomb site.’
‘I actually said “no” at first… I just was like, “oh my god, I don’t think I can do this right now”,’ he said of the overwhelming decision as a new father.While knocking the show’s executive producer at first, he was glad to have been encouraged to sleep on it.
However, convinced that he’d have to miss out, he went home and ‘bawled [his] eyes out’.
Nick’s wife Christine came home that night to find him wallowing, and wondered why he was crying.
The new dad was torn between his responsibilities at home and the dreams of winning Survivor.
Surprisingly, Christine encouraged Nick to accept the invite, and said he’d regret it for the rest of his life if he didn’t sign up to compete against the best of the best.
Nick even took to Instagram to thank his wife, writing: ‘In the last year this woman has been the most amazing mother and ride or die you could ask for.
‘She didn’t bat an eyelid when I derailed our life (again) for Survivor, this time with a 6 month old and in the hellish depths of an entire house renovation.
‘She does everything from a place of support, challenge and love.’
