25 May 2020

Queen guitarist Brian May reveals heart attack that left him in ‘agony’

Musician Brian May has revealed he was rushed into hospital ’in agony’ after suffering a heart attack.

The 72-year-old Queen guitarist revealed his health scare in a video on Instagram on Monday.

Alongside the clip, he wrote : "My medical adventures!

"Hmm ... Sheer Heart Attack eh? Well, I think I always worried a little bit about that album title. 

May was initially hospitalised last month with a suspected ripped muscle caused by ’over-enthustiastic gardening’.

"I had an MRI and yes I did have a rip in my Gluteus Maximus and it’s so easy to make a connection, there's a rip there so that must be the cause of the pain, end of story. And no other tests were done.

“Now a week later I'm still in agony. I mean real agony,” he said.

"I could not believe the pain. And people are saying ’that's not like a ripped muscle’, so eventually I had another MRI.

“But this one I had one of the lower spine and 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.

“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," he said.

"But the rest of the story is a little more bizarre. I was shocked, I thought I was a healthy guy. Everyone says I've got a great blood pressure and I keep fit, I bike, good diet.

"I had - 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. It's that feeling in the arms and sweating.

"To cut a long story short, my wonderful doctor drove me to the hospital himself and I had an angiogram."

It was found that he had three congested arteries which could potentially stop the flow of blood to his heart and despite doctors suggesting open heart surgery, May opted to have three stents put inside his heart.

“I walked out with a heart that is very strong now. So I think I'm in good shape for some time to come."

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