Bam Margera's hospital stay last month was even gnarlier than was previously revealed. On December 9th, 2022, TMZ reported that the Jackass star was hospitalized for a combination of COVID-19 and pneumonia, and was allegedly placed on a ventilator due to the severity of his condition. It seemed like a dire situation, but just over a week later, the stuntman was filmed headbanging sidestage at an Amon Amarth concert, which seemed insane at the time but even crazier now, as Margera has revealed just how close he came to death's door during his stint in the ICU.
In a new interview with his old Jackass buddy, Steve-O, on his Wild Ride podcast, Margera said that he was essentially "pronounced dead" during last month's hospital stay, in which he suffered numerous seizures. He also revealed that during one of those seizures he bit his tongue badly, and then contracted pneumonia from drinking his infected tongue blood. Holy shit.
"I was basically pronounced dead on Elvis' birthday, December 8th," Margera told Steve-O. "I did not know that I had gnarly COVID and my body was shutting down. I went into four seizures, and each one lasting 10 to 20 minutes. And on the fourth one I bit my tongue so hard it was nearly fallen off. It got so swollen and puffy it wouldn't fit in my mouth, and I was drinking the infected blood, which gave me pneumonia, as well."
The 43-year-old said that after his fifth seizure, doctors decided to put a tube down his throat because he was no longer able to breathe independently. Because of all this, he was unconscious for a lot of his stay and had no idea how long he was actually under once he finally came to.
"So I woke up five days later thinking I was there for just a couple hours," he said. "They were like, 'Dude, you've been here for nearly a week. We tried to take the tube out, but you weren't breathing on your own.' I spent eight days in there."
During the interview, Steve-O told Margera that he was so terrified when he saw the headlines that he was on a ventilator, that he thought Margera wasn't going to make it. "I'm just thinking, 'Oh my god. This is it,'" Steve-O said. "This is terrible. My first legitimate thought was, 'Fucking, Bam better not die. He's gonna ruin my tour. He's gonna ruin everything."
See the full interview below.
