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Brian May reveals he suffered a heart attack

The 72-year-old Queen guitarist was rushed to the hospital with three clogged arteries and was in a state “very near death”.

Brian May

Photo: Cole Bennetts / Getty Images

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Brian May has revealed that he was recently hospitalised after suffering a heart attack. The 72-year-old Queen guitarist took to Instagram today (25 May), saying that he was in a state “very near death” during the incident.

May reportedly suffered through 40 minutes of pain and tightness in the chest, along with other symptoms that led him to believe that he was indeed experiencing a heart attack. He was driven to the hospital by his doctor, where he received an angiogram revealing that he had three blocked arteries.

After much deliberation, May revealed that he had opted to treat his heart attack with stents in lieu of a triple-bypass. The procedure went well, and May sang praises about the medical team that tended to him.

“When I came around, it was as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t feel that they’d been [in my chest]. I couldn’t feel anything – and I still can’t,” he said. “It’s been amazing. It’s an incredible operation done by the right, skilful person, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I walked out with a heart that’s very strong now and I think I’m in good shape for some time to come.”

See his full post below.

The video also shed more light on another incident May suffered earlier this month, where he tore a muscle in his gluteus maximus while gardening. As it turned out, a subsequent MRI uncovered that he was also suffering a pinched nerve in his lower spine, hence the severe pains.

“Sure enough we would discover that I had a compressed sciatic nerve, quite severely compressed, which is why I felt like someone had been putting a screwdriver in my back the entire time. It was excruciating,” he said in the Instagram video. “So that’s one side of the story, and I’m a lot better now. I’m free of that terrible pain that actually destroys your mind.”

Though May considered his heart attack to be a bizarre turning point within the “saga of the painful backside”, it is still unclear if the prior injury has had any bearing on his recent heart attack.

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