Doctors there misdiagnosed and mistreated his condition to the point that Musk was near death. “Then, there happened to be a guy visiting from another hospital who had seen a lot more malaria cases,” Musk said. He spied Musk’s blood work in the lab and ordered an immediate maximum dosage of doxycycline, an antibiotic. The doctor told Musk that if he had turned up a day later, the medicine likely would no longer have been effective. Musk spent ten agonizing days in the intensive care unit.
The experience shocked Justine. “He’s built like a tank,” she said. “He has a level of stamina and an ability to deal with levels of stress that I’ve never seen in anyone else. To see him laid low like that in total misery was like a visit to an alternate universe.” It took Musk six months to recover. He lost forty-five pounds over the course of the illness and had a closet full of clothes that no longer fit.
“I came very close to dying,” Musk said. “That’s my lesson for taking a vacation: vacations will kill you.”
— Elon Musk (Ashlee Vance), Loc. 1260–7
Oh, vacations will kill you indeed!