Queen guitarist Brian May revealed on Sunday night he was “very near death” after suffering a minor heart attack.
The 72-year-old shared details of his health scare in a video he posted on Instagram.
May said after feeling about 40 minutes of pain in his chest and left arm, his doctor drove him to a hospital for an angiogram. Doctors discovered he had three arteries “congested and in danger of blocking the supply of blood to my heart.”
The musician said he had to choose between having bypass surgery or having three stents (small wire-mesh tubes that help keep arteries open) put in. He opted for the latter.
“I walked out with a heart that’s very strong now,” said May, “so I think I’m in good shape for some time to come.”
Earlier this month, May made headlines when he said he “managed to rip my Gluteus Maximus to shreds in a moment of over-enthusiastic gardening.”
On Sunday, May said he endured a week of “real agony” so he returned to hospital for a follow-up MRI that revealed he had a “quite severely compressed” sciatic nerve.
“That’s why I had this feeling that someone was putting a screwdriver in my back the whole time,” he said. “It was excruciating.”
May figures the damage was the result of “50 years of running around with a guitar strap over my left shoulder holding a heavy guitar.”