Legendary BJJ competitor and coach Romulo Barral was recently hospitalized due to a blood infection during his European seminar tour. Barral is one of the most popular figures in the sport and has even returned to competing at the highest levels of the sport in recent years as well. Barral was in Spain during one part of the tour at the time and he woke up in pain as he explains it:
“I thought it was something due to training. I took some medicine and went to my next seminar with a lot of pain. There were hours and hours of pain, [but] I managed to minister the seminar sitting on the tatame with my brother Bitim showing the positions. We finished the seminar and I took another medicine that softened the pain for a while. We travelled to the last seminar, and the pain began to increase. The night before the seminar I had many shivers and pain, [but] still I woke up and committed to it.”
It wasn’t long before Barral realised that he was actually worse than he’d first thought, and he needed to seek treatment urgently:
“I was already having a high fever. That’s when my doctor sent me to the hospital because he suspected it was some infection. And he wasn’t wrong, I had a blood infection (Spondilodiscitis) and then I went to Ernado [hospital]. After many tests, they found an infection in my lower back; between L4 and L5. It was 16 days of IV antibiotics, 16 hard days in hospital”
Thankfully though, Barral confirmed that he has made a full recovery:
“And God has delivered me; the results of my last blood test were all negative. Now I can go home and continue oral treatment. These were very hard days I went through. I’ve been weak several times but I always came back stronger.”
Romulo Barral announced the news that he was hospitalized with a blood infection in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
