Queen guitarist Brian May has said he had a heart attack and was "very near death" earlier this month.
The 72-year-old musician revealed doctors found three blocked arteries stopping the supply of blood to his heart after he was treated for agonising pain due to a rip in his gluteus maximus and a compressed sciatic nerve.
Speaking in a video on Instagram, he said: "I thought I was a very healthy guy and everyone says you've got great blood pressure, you've got great heart rate and everything, and I keep fit, on my bike and everything, good diet, not too much fat.
“Anyway, in the middle of the whole saga of the painful backside, I had a small heart attack.
“I say small – it’s not something that did me any harm, it was about 40 minutes of pain in the chest, and tightness, and that feeling in the arms and sweating and, you know, you’ve kind of heard you think ‘actually this is a heart attack’.”
May said he was under pressure to have a triple bypass but eventually chose to have stents (tubes that open blocked passageways) put in.
He said: “The only reason it wasn’t easy for me was because of the excruciating pain I had in my leg, otherwise it would have been a doddle.
“When I came around it was as if nothing had happened, I couldn’t feel anything and I still can’t.”
May thanked the doctors who worked on him “from the bottom of my heart”, adding: “I could have died from the blockages that were there.”
He continued: “I think we have all got to look at ourselves as we get to our autumn years and what seems to be a very healthy heart might not be.
“I was actually very near death because of this but the pain I had was from something else.”
May captioned the video: “My medical adventures! Hmm ... Sheer Heart Attack eh? Well, I think I always worried a little bit about that album title. I wondered if it might upset some people who had actually had heart attacks.
“I’m actually quite relieved now that I’m in that club – and I don’t find it upsetting at all! Take. care folks.
“And ... why did those discs in my spine get so squished? Well I think 50 years of running around with a guitar strap over my left shoulder holding a heavy guitar might have something to do with it! But it probably WAS all worth it!” – PA
