Bam Margera is alive and well, as he proved during a recent appearance on “Steve-O’s Wild Ride!” podcast — but according to the skateboarder and stunt star, that wasn't true just one month ago.
During Margera’s conversation with his pal and former “Jackass” co-star, he revealed his recent battle with COVID-19 left his body “shutting down” after a series of seizures rocked him.
“I basically was pronounced dead on ... Dec. 8," Margera explained during his third visit to Steve-O's show. "I did not know that I had gnarly COVID. My body was shutting down, and I went into four seizures, each one lasting 10 to 20 minutes. And on the fourth one, I bit my tongue so hard, it was like nearly falling 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."
As harrowing as all of that sounds, he noted that it was the fifth seizure, which occurred after he’d been taken to the hospital, that caused the greatest concern.
“I went into my fifth seizure, and I couldn’t breathe without a tube down my throat,” Margera said.
And that's the last thing the 43-year-old remembers of that day — or several other days that followed it.
“I woke up five days later thinking I was there for a couple of hours,” Margera recalled. “They’re like, ‘Dude you’ve been here for nearly a week. We tried to take the tube out, and you weren’t breathing on your own.’"
While the overall risk of developing seizures in the wake of a COVID-19 infection is said to be low, Margera’s case shows it can be serious for those it does impact. He said he spent a total of eight days in the hospital.
Steve-O said Margera being in the intensive care unit and on a ventilator shook him, for a variety of reasons.
"I’m just thinking, ‘Oh, my God, this is it,'" the host said. "What’s terrible is that my first legitimate thought was, ‘F---ing Bam better not die, dude. He’s going to ruin my tour. He’s going to ruin everything!'”