Country singer Colt Ford opened up about his recent heart attack and said he clinically died — twice — during the ordeal.
The 54-year-old singer revealed the shocking news on the Big D & Bubba radio show. He said that he has absolutely no recollection of his performance at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row venue in Gilbert, Arizona, on April 4, which led to him being rushed to hospital in cardiac arrest.
“I didn’t even remember coming out here to do a show in Phoenix, and apparently we played this great, sold-out show and it was incredible,” Ford told the radio hosts. “I walked back to the bus, texted my fiancée, ‘Hi baby,’ and fell over dead.”
The famous singer joined the radio show by telephone and sounded as though he struggled to catch his breath while he spoke. The hosts asked Ford if he had actually been declared “clinically dead,” and he proceeded to admit that he “died two times” after his live show.
He revealed that he likely would not have survived if his band hadn’t gone looking for him at that precise moment.
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“They’re like, ‘It’s really hot in there.’ I’m getting to kind of be an old guy now and they came out and checked on me and then all of a sudden, they were like ‘Oh God.’ That’s when all hell broke loose,” Ford said.
Ford said he was quickly transported to the hospital where it was later determined that he needed extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a procedure in which blood is pumped outside of the body and oxygenated in order to help vital organs, like the heart, rest. This procedure enables the heart to recover from trauma, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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The situation worsened when the hospital didn’t have the correct facilities for the procedure, which Ford to be transported to “another hospital ASAP.”
“Bentley’s trauma team got me [to a second hospital]. [I] died on the way over and they brought me back and saved my life,” the singer said.
Ford shocked the hosts by saying he didn’t wake up until a full week later, on April 10. He said he opened his eyes to see his fiancée, Megan, and his son, Colt Jr., at his bedside.
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He recalled the doctors told him, “I wouldn’t have given you 1%, I would have given you 0.1% that you would survive.”
Ford said there was a lot of “trauma to my body and my heart,” and noted the doctors “put three stents in.”
He said his gallbladder also “crapped out,” requiring the doctors put a “drain in.”
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“The Lord had more for me to do. I’ve got more music for me to make and hopefully more differences to make in some people’s lives,” he said. (RELATED: Death Certificate Reveals Louis Gossett Jr.’s Cause Of Death)
“Live every day like it’s your last because one day it will be.”