Sunrise's Nat Barr reveals health scare left her unable to sit up for months: 'Traumatic'

Sunrise host Nat Barr has opened up about a terrifying health scare that left her worried she might never sit up again.

In a candid interview with Sunday Life, Nat revealed that at the age of 15, she spent two months lying in a hospital bed after a bug took over her body.

“I got really sick with a disease in my spine called osteomyelitis,” she said.

“The bug had eaten two of my verterbrae and they were crumbling. I’d had back pain and saw a physio who wrote to my doctor; I never saw what was in the note but that night I ended up in hospital, an orthopaedic surgeon telling me: ‘Lie down, or you’ll never sit up again’.

“I didn’t sit up again for months.”

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Nat was flown by the Royal Flying Doctor to a Perth hospital where a lumbar puncture discovered the exact strain of the bug.

“Then I went back to Bunbury and was on my back for the next couple of months, pumped with high-dose antibiotics,” she continued.

“It was traumatic – I didn’t know if I’d be able to walk again.”

Thankfully, the bug didn't leave any lasting impacts on Nat's health and she went on to finish her studies and move up the ladder in the media industry.

Nat Barr victim of online trolling

While Nat spoke about the wonderful encounters she has with fans on a regular basis, she's also previously revealed that she tries to avoid trolls at all costs.

The host has previously opened up on how she deals with trolling at a panel at the Australian Women's Weekly 'Women of the Future Awards'.

"The comments are [like] the gutter… you kind of want to have a look, but it's really, really dangerous," she said, touching on some of the backlash she faced after taking the Sunrise co-hosting role after Samantha Armytage left the show.

"I've got screenshots of people saying 'die b—ch, die' all the usual stuff," she said.

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"I've had pictures sent to me that say 'this b—ch needs to die, how are we going to do it?'"

She said at the time that blocking the trolls and not getting fixated on what they're saying is the best way to keep sane.

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