COVID-19: No risks taken by Geraldton cafe owner Ron Payne

Ron Payne — the Geraldton cafe owner who cheated death last year — is back in self-isolation. “We had to get him home when this (COVID-19) started, it is too close for comfort,” Donna Payne said of her husband. “We couldn’t take any risks having him outside.” The couple, who were forced to close their Marine Terrace lunch bar while Mr Payne hung between life and death in a Perth hospital last year after influenza type A ravaged his body, have had to close their shop again. “We’ve copped another big whammy, but at least Ron’s with us,” Mrs Payne said. “There’s no income but we have to have him in self-isolation. Ron is having dialysis three times a week and we have been to a renal specialist for tests. I take him for a drive, but he doesn’t get out of the car. That’s his only outing at present.” Mr Payne, 57, needs dialysis as his kidneys aren’t functioning properly. His dramas started last year, around the time he and his wife were vaccinated against the flu. He had a couple of days off work and Mrs Payne found him slumped on the laundry floor of their Wandina home on June 18. The Royal Flying Doctor Service plane rushed him to Fiona Stanley Hospital. The following day, Mrs Payne started work — not knowing her husband was at death’s door — before driving to Perth. She arrived to be ushered into a room — which, according to Mrs Payne was the start of a “horror movie” — where a doctor told her to “prepare for the worst”. Daughters Shanae and Alexis were called, the latter rushing from Geraldton. Mr Payne, later dubbed a “miracle man” bucked the odds of surviving the first 24 hours. Mr Payne was put in an induced coma when he developed Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia in both lungs, septic shock, multiple organ failure, had a heart attack and his kidneys shut down. He was brought out of the coma after a week, but had a tracheostomy and needed assistance breathing. Mr Payne had a double heart bypass the previous year. “I think he would have died if he hadn’t had that,” Mrs Payne said of her diabetic husband. “I don’t think he would have had the strength otherwise.” As for their CBD lunch bar this year, Mrs Payne was unsure of what would happen. “Good friends (Carol and Chris) reopened it for us last year, but as we all know, this year is so different,” Mrs Payne said. “Our business had dropped 80-85 per cent because of COVID-19. I’m not sure what will happen. We’re not getting any money but we’ve got Ron and that’s what matters.”