The media in 1988 dubbed him the “Meltdown Man” because his body temperature had risen to the point that his muscles liquefied and poisoned his kidneys — a condition called rhabdomyolysis.

The fit 28-year-old lost half his body weight within months, and when he finally woke from his medically-induced coma, he found he couldn’t move or talk. For a while he was a prisoner in his own body.

Today Mr Dorrity said he was the only known survivor of the perfect storm that beset his body, which also included a bout of gangrene that resulted in his left leg being amputated, and a rare type of chemical poisoning from his wound dressing.