Sir Elton John was “24 hours from death” when he contracted an infection.
The I’m Still Standing hitmaker got seriously ill after surgery for prostate cancer back in 2017, where fluid was leaking from his lymph nodes.
He said: “I was incredibly lucky – although, I have to say, I didn’t feel terribly lucky at the time. I lay awake all night, wondering if I was going to die. In the hospital, alone at the dead of night, I’d prayed: Please don’t let me die, please let me see my kids again, please give me a little longer.”
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And the 72-year-old singer opened up about how it all came about, admitting he doesn’t even remember some of what happened.
Writing in his memoir Me: Elton John, obtained by the Daily Mail newspaper, he said: “I was taken to King Edward VII’s Hospital in London, where I had a scan.
“I was told that my condition was so serious, the hospital didn’t have the equipment to cope with it. I had to be moved to the London Clinic.
“My last memory is of hyperventilating while they were trying to find a vein to give me an injection … By 2.30pm, I was on the operating table, having more lymphatic fluid drained – this time from my diaphragm.
He continued: “For two days afterwards, I was in intensive care. When I came round, they told me I’d contracted a major infection in South America, and that they were treating it with massive intravenous doses of antibiotics.
“But the fever came back. They took a sample of the infection… it was much more serious than they’d first realised.
“There were MRI scans and God knows how many other procedures. The doctors told David I was 24 hours away from death.
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“If the South American tour had gone on for another day that would have been it: brown bread.
“After 11 days in hospital the father of two was allowed home and spent seven weeks ‘recuperating, learning to walk again.”
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