Outspoken AFL personality Sam Newman has shown his softer side reaching out to the wife of Australian television legend Bert Newton after the star had his leg amputated.
The Geelong veteran turned TV commentator, 75, sadly lost his beloved wife of 20 years a week earlier but took the time to send a heartfelt message to Patti and Bert.
‘Unimaginable times for the Newton family. Wishing the great Bert Newton and Patti the strength to endure. Hoping…hoping,’ Newman posted to Twitter.
Newman on Wednesday spoke at length about his heartache at losing his partner, Amanda Brown, 50, after almost two decades.
‘So I get home and I walk in the door and the television is on in the bedroom and so I look down there and she is lying there on the tiles outside the laundry,’ he said on his popular podcast You Cannot Be Serious.
AFL commentator Sam Newman reached out to Patti (left) the wife of Australian television legend Bert Newton (right) after the star had his leg amputated
Newman on Wednesday spoke at length about his heartache at losing his partner, Amanda Brown, 50, after almost two decades. Pictured: Sam Newman and Amanda Brown
Newman lost his beloved wife of 20 years a week earlier but the grief-stricken widows took the time to send a heartfelt message to Patti and Bert
‘As soon as I saw her I knew she was dead.’
‘I rang 000 and the very helpful person said you better try and give CPR and she talked me through that.
‘I’ve got the phone on speaker and I’m pumping this poor woman who’s lying there looking so peaceful, obviously dead, but the operator said keep doing it in case there’s a spark of life in her, I think she said.
‘So for 20 minutes I’m giving CPR to what I knew was a corpse.’
Still reeling from the sadness, he felt the need to console the Newtons in their time of need.
It’s been a harrowing few months for the couple after it was revealed Bert’s toe became infected before Christmas.
The 82-year-old four-time Gold Logie winner, who has battled ill health for years and spent the past six weeks in hospital, was told the surgery was a ‘life or death decision’, entertainment reporter Peter Ford said on 3AW Breakfast on Monday.
Mr Ford, who has been in contact with the Newton family, said the infection kept getting worse and spreading, leaving doctors no choice but to amputate.
Doctors reportedly told Bert last week that amputating the leg would save his life, but keeping the leg would mean he’d have just ‘months to live’.
He consented to the surgery on Saturday, Mr Ford said.
‘[The infection] got worse… he was seeing doctors and specialists and they couldn’t seem to get it right; it kept on spreading,’ Mr Ford explained.
Bert and Patti are preparing for a major adjustment once he gets home from hospital
The 82-year-old four-time Gold Logie winner was told the surgery was a ‘life or death decision’. Pictured with wife Patti
The Newtons are said to be staying positive and don’t want the public to think of Bert’s amputation as a ‘sad’ story
‘Basically he was told last week, ‘You have a couple of months to live, or if you have your leg amputated, you’ll probably have a few years.’ So he agreed to have the leg amputated on Saturday.’
Bert’s wife of 47 years, Patti, 76, was pictured arriving to be by her husband’s side along with their daughter Lauren Newton, 40, on Tuesday.
Patti put on a brave face as she made her way towards the hospital entrance with Lauren nearby.
The former singer and stage performer did her best to remain upbeat and flashed her infectious smile as she was greeted by television reporters at their family home before heading to the hospital.
Peter Ford said Bert and Patti are preparing for a major adjustment once he gets home from hospital.
‘It’s a big decision for anyone to make [to amputate], but it’s also a practical thing, because they live in a two-storey place with the bedrooms and the bathrooms upstairs, so they’re now having to convert the house downstairs because Patti doesn’t want him to go into a nursing home,’ he said.
However, the Newtons are said to be staying positive and don’t want the public to think of Bert’s amputation as a ‘sad’ story.
Mr Ford said: ‘They [the Newton family] said, ‘We had a choice. Other people don’t have a choice. Bert wants to keep on living, because he adores Patti, his children and his grandkids, and he wants to have as much time as he can with them.”
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