Councillor on mend after health scare

Council cultural ambassador Trevor Maxwell (left) welcomes Papa Maurice Aorua to Rotorua late last year. PHOTO/FILE

One of Rotorua's most popular people should be back in the city he loves today after spending around a week in Whangarei Hospital with a serious illness.

Long serving Rotorua district councillor Trevor Maxwell told the Rotorua Daily Post he did start to get worried when what he thought was a bad case of food poisoning turned into something more serious after a family trip to Samoa.

Mr Maxwell was eventually diagnosed with Aeromonas veronii - commonly known as Traveller's Diarrhoea - but says he has made a good recovery and expected to be discharged from hospital this morning.

"We had a lovely week in Samoa with the whanau but it turned out that I picked up this travel bug, thank goodness it was not this Zika virus going around," he said.

He said he started feeling unwell when he got back to Auckland. He was planning on visiting Waitangi for Waitangi Day where his grand-daughter was performing over the weekend.

"But, hello, I got crook as a dog and thought it was some fish I had bought up here in Northland."

He said his daughter became very concerned when his illness did not run its natural course and had him taken by ambulance to a medical centre in Kawakawa.

"It was not food poisoning, it was this bacteria I picked up probably from some drinking water over in Samoa."

He was soon taken to Whangarei Hospital in another ambulance and given fluids and had numerous blood tests before doctors diagnosed his problem. At the time he said he was severely dehydrated and feeling "pretty poorly".

"The good news is I have had tremendous treatment up here. They said it was a challenge for them but they got a handle on it. It's my first time in hospital since my teenage years when I had my tonsils out."

After a week in hospital recovering Mr Maxwell hopes to be back in town today.

"It's all cleared up but they wanted me here for one more day. There's no more needles sticking out of me thank goodness."