Molly Meldrum's condition is slowly improving. Picture: Fiona Hamilton Source: Herald Sun
- Do you know who I am? Good, don't tell anyone ...
- Molly makes it to a cafe across from the hospital
- Hospital staff catch up with him and take him back
MOLLY Meldrum tried to make a break from hospital as he recovered from brain trauma and got as far as the cafe opposite before he was hauled back by hospital staff.
What was even more amazing was that the young girl making him a cup of coffee had not recognised him, even though he had been in the media for months because of his near-death fall in his house before Christmas.
The much-celebrated music identity was speaking for the first time on the Seven Network's Today Tonight where was interviewed by his friend and journalist Jennifer Keyte.
He said that after months laid up in Epworth Hospital, in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, it was beginning to feel like Alcatraz.
He recalled looking out the hospital window one night and seeing the MCG and AAMI Park lit up for football matches so he thought he would get dressed and wander down.
But the nurse in the ward had other ideas and sent him straight back to bed.
Meldrum's life changed forever when he fell on December 15 last year while putting up Christmas decorations, spending the next eight weeks in a coma with injuries that included traumatic brain injury, a fractured skull, a collapsed lung, broken ribs, and bleeding and compression in his spinal column.
He is now well on the road to recovery, albeit with a slight slur in his voice, but keen to get back to supporting his AFL team St Kilda and his NRL favourites Melbourne Storm.
He told Keyte that the hardest thing for him has been adjusting to the new reality and that he had given up drinking.
"I've sworn off the grog," he said.
"I partied all the time, I drank too much."
He admitted to having a few beers the day he fell.
On the day he tried to escape from the hospital, he was going to the rehab centre across from the hospital in Bridge Rd, and managed to get away from the therapist while out on the street and tried unsuccessfully to hail a cab.
That was when he darted into the cafe for a coffee and asked the staff to ring him a taxi.
As Epworth staff were shepherding him back to the hospital Meldrum tried some bluster to get free of them.
"I tried to explain to them that the jurisdiction of the Epworth was that side of Bridge Rd and I was on the other side so no one could touch me," he said.
Meldrum revealed he received a get-well call from Prime Minister Julia Gillard and another from Sir Elton John.
He also thanked his thousands of fans who sent him messages of support.
When he is fully recovered he wants to interview Sir Elton and his partner David Furnish and their son Zachary, as well as Lady Gaga, who is Zachary's godmother.
"Can you imagine Elton and Gaga, walking in a park with a pram with Zachary - imagine what that would look like. The mind boggles," he said.
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