Bam Margera Says He 'Was Basically Pronounced Dead' After Having Multiple Seizures with Pneumonia
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Bam Margera is opening up about his health following an eight-day hospital stay in December.
"We have a lot to talk about," he told fellow Jackass star Steve-O on Thursday's episode of the Steve-O's Wild Ride! podcast.
"I basically was pronounced dead on Elvis' birthday, December 8th. I did not know that I had gnarly COVID. My body was shutting down, and I went into four seizures, each one lasting 10 to 20 minutes, and on the fourth one, I bit my tongue so hard, it was nearly falling off," he explained.
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"It got so swollen and puffy, it wouldn't fit in my mouth, and I was drinking the infected blood, which gave me pneumonia as well, so when the shaman took me to the hospital, I went into my fifth seizure, and I couldn't breathe without a tube down my throat," Margera said.
Margera, 43, added that he did not understand the severity of his health at the time of his hospitalization and described it as an experience during which he "blacked out."
"I woke up five days later thinking I was there for a couple of hours," he continued. "They're like, 'Dude you've been here for nearly a week. We tried to take the tube out, and you weren't breathing on your own.' "
According to Steve-O, seeing Margera on a ventilator and in the intensive care unit in "critical but stable condition" frightened him. He joked about Margera's hospitalization occurring during the middle of his tour, but added, "The important thing is that Bam's not dead."
Following his hospital release, Margera celebrated by sharing a photo alongside Johnny Schillereff on Instagram wearing matching black hoodies.
"I'm out!" he wrote in the caption of the Dec. 10 post. "Thank you to my friends, family and you for the love, support and prayers."
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