I Nearly Died – My Story
If you know me well or at all I might add, you’ll know that I stopped doing my live singing many months back because I had been rushed to hospital straight from a plane at Manchester to Wythenshawe Hospital for life saving care for Pneumonia MRSA and at that time I was told I was hours from death but luckily got there in time to save my life and though admittedly I didn’t like the hospital, I did like the staff and I’ve no doubt that they saved my life, no matter how hard it was for me having to be in hospital and a hospital that was pretty far from home at least in my view. I did one live singing session inbetween these occurrences however I’m now having to call time on my singing again, see below.
Fast forward to December 2024 and by dinnertime I wasn’t up, my mum came and checked on me and I was fine but by around 3 I still wasn’t up so when my mum came to check me that time, my face was gray and my lips were blue (A sure sign that I wasn’t getting enough oxygen) so an ambulance was rung and at approximately 1:00AM the next morning I was put on life support where I remained for another 4 days, I was transferred from my local hospital to Salford Royal Hospital Intensive Care Unit where I must’ve been hooked up to every machine there was in the room and kept there under constant watch. My mum tells me of when she first come to see me on life support with a tube down my throat that the first thing she did when she saw me was break down in floods of tears and being told by a nurse “He’s young, he’s strong, he’ll fight this” and by God I did.
This time it was ‘Community Aquired’ Pneumonia MRSA. This means my singing will have to be ended for an extended period of time in order for my lungs to get back what they have lost and for some sort of PTSD help for me to help me get my head around my body not being able to breathe for itself as that grapples me at night.
Believe me, all I want to do is grab a microphone and sing, but the simple truth is, I just can’t do it, at least not yet… But I’ve got something in my head to pass the time for all of us, if only I can make it work.
In the meantime, take care (of yourself and others) and stay safe (you can never be too safe, you can always be overcautious).
Gareth J Collinge