Queen's Brian May Reveals He Nearly Died from 'Shocking' Effects of Heart Attack Medication
Adam Lambert Says Queen's Brian May Is 'Doing Better' Following Heart Attack
"That kind of thing takes a minute to recover from, but I am so glad that he is okay," Adam Lambert said of Brian May
Brian May has revealed that he nearly died of "shocking" complications from his heart attack medication.
"That's the point where I nearly lost my life – not the heart attack strangely enough," May told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday.
"You have to be so careful with the medication that they give you," he added. "It's great for the heart, it's not very good for the rest of your body and you can really go down. It's a tightrope you walk."
He continued, "The worst thing that happened was a stomach hemorrhage and I lost an awful lot of blood. I was wiped out, couldn't get across the floor."
Brian May/Instagram
'I’m getting strong. I’m very grateful.'
Queen legend @DrBrianMay talks about his heart attack, Covid-19 and releasing a charity single to raise awareness for breast cancer charities.https://t.co/z6CixzkJgr— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) October 27, 2020
The rock legend first revealed that he'd suffered a "small heart attack" at his home in England during an emotional Instagram post on May 25.
"It's not something that did me any harm," May initially said about the medical incident, which came while he was suffering huge pain from tearing his butt muscles to "shreds" while gardening.
RELATED: Adam Lambert Says Queen's Brian May Is 'Doing Better' Following Heart Attack
At the hospital, May received an angiogram, which indicated that he had three congested arteries and subsequently had three small 'stent' tubes inserted to maintain the flow of blood to his heart.
Yet worse was to come when he suffered a severe reaction to his post-op medication.
Brian May/Instagram
"I had a bad time all round," he says about his health-scarred 2020. "A catalog of disasters, sciatica as well. I'm not quite sure how I got that. The pain from that was so excruciating I couldn't really go through with the operation at first for the stents."
Since having his stents fitted, May has thrown himself into a daily exercise routine which he jokingly says is going to turn him into "Iron Man soon!"
He also believes that coronavirus may have played a role in his heart attack because of the way the virus thickens the blood. As a result, he is now living a "ridiculously careful" life with actress wife Anita Dobson — whom he recently credited with saving his life.
"She was incredible," he told the Daily Express. "I couldn't do anything and she just kind of nursed me, so I will forever be in her debt; she did an incredible job on me."
David Fisher/BAFTA/Shutterstock
To take his mind off his 2020 troubles, May has also teamed up with the rock musical theatre band Woman for a cover of the 1962 track "I'm A Woman" in support of cancer charities.
"It's all about commemorating a great friend... Rebekah Gibbs, who we lost to breast cancer," he told GMB about his close friend who died from the disease in 2014.
As for his own current state of health, the rock legend sees his post-op recovery as just one of the many challenges we've all faced since the start of the year.
Brian May/Instagram
"[The heart attack] was pretty bad and the complications that came after were pretty bad," May told GMB.
"It's been a big mountain to climb to get up to strength again. But it's become my new religion really; I just exercise, I do my cardio rehab every day and I'm getting strong."
May continued, "I'm very grateful. I had a wonderful surgeon. I'm so grateful to be alive. A few years ago that couldn't have happened. I have three stents in me, which are working just fine. I feel good."
