Aron Baynes has spoken for the first time about his harrowing Tokyo Olympics experience where he feared permanent paralysis following a neck injury.
The NBA veteran revealed that teammate Matthew Dellavedova posed as a doctor to give him his bronze medal in hospital.
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Little has been known about what exactly Baynes has endured since falling unconscious in the bathroom at Saitama Super Arena during Australia's group stages game against Italy. Baynes suffered what turned out to be the scariest injury of his life.
In an interview with ESPN's Brian Windhorst, Baynes explains how he endured months of debilitating pain and physical rehab. Initially, he could not even stand on his own until eleven days into his hospital stay in Tokyo.
He was in such pain that the 6-foot-10 burly big man was weeping in pain, fearing that he might be paralyzed for life.
"The loneliest time in my life was laying in that hospital, going in and out of consciousness, going over my life plan and my goals and just crying," Baynes said. "My uncle Don had an accident 10 years ago. He's a quadriplegic. My family's had first-hand experience with this going down. I was so scared."
An MRI done at the hospital showed he had internal bleeding that was putting pressure on his spinal cord.
Baynes spent two weeks in the hospital in Japan. He was told that if he could stand on his own, he could take the flight from Tokyo to Brisbane to begin receiving treatment back home.
In the meantime, though, his Australian teammates had clinched the Bronze medal in the tournament and wanted to give Baynes his medal. To do so, teammates Matthew Dellavedova and Nathan Sobey posed as team doctors to get inside his hospital room.
"It was a pretty emotional visit, you know?" Dellavedova says. "It had been such a long journey for us to get there and he was such a big part of the program. There were a few tears. I don't want to get in trouble with the Japanese officials, but I'm glad we were able to get in there."
Baynes jokes: "Delly got an online degree."
Baynes, who last played in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors, will sit out the remainder of the current NBA season has set a goal of returning to the NBA next season.
