Australian rock legend Jimmy Barnes has revealed his close brush with death and his grave fears of not waking up from open heart surgery.
The 67-year-old Scottish-born former Cold Chisel frontman has survived his fair share of health problems due to his years of living life to the fullest and his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
While before it was others who were worried about him, two months ago he was as worried as his family after he suffered a life-threatening infection that attacked his heart.
At one point, as he lay in Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, the seriously ill Barnes told his wife Jane: “I don’t think I’m going to make it.”
‘I just had this horrible sick feeling because I had never felt so sick before. I thought I was gone,” she said. 60 minutes.
Hours before being admitted to the hospital, an ill Barnes took the stage at a concert in memory of his late friend and promoter, Michael Gudinski.
At one point, at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, Jimmy Barnes (left) told his wife Jane (right): “I don’t think I’ll make it.”
Although he had felt very unwell the night before being admitted to hospital, Barnes still played at a memorial concert (pictured) for his late friend Michael Gudinski.
The pain of performing because he didn’t want to disappoint anyone could be clearly seen in the concert footage, although it wasn’t noticeable from his powerful voice that night.
Barnes was so ill that he barely remembers the show.
‘I felt really bad. And even though I felt like I could barely walk, I had to get there,” she said.
Backstage, I was sweating and had a fever. ‘
‘There was a lot of pain. My back hurt a lot… It was difficult for me to walk. I don’t know how I got through it,” Barnes recalled.
“As soon as I walked out, I practically collapsed.”
Barnes was scheduled to fly abroad for another concert the next morning, but went to hospital as his health continued to deteriorate.
“I could have easily said, ‘I’ll sleep on the plane, I’ll sleep until I’m tired,'” Jane recalled.
“If I had done that this time, I don’t know if I would be with us.”
Barnes explained what led him to make that fateful decision to go to St Vincent’s instead of Sydney Airport.
‘I got out of bed and I was in a lot of pain. I was panting, I had a fever (and I thought) I just can’t do it.’
Although he had had back problems on and off for years, this time he didn’t know what was wrong with him. She just knew she couldn’t ignore it.
When his children found out that their father was in the hospital, they immediately knew it was serious.
“For him to tune out (and say) ‘I’m going to the hospital’ is a big deal,” said his eldest son, Today Extra host David Campbell.
His daughter Mahalia added: “I have been worried about him at many times, but I don’t think I have ever been more worried about him and all of us than I was until December.”
Campbell said he called his father’s wife and Jane and she told them, “This is not good.” It doesn’t feel good at all.’
“So it went from feeling like ‘I’m letting people down’ to ‘something’s wrong and I don’t know what’s going on with my body.'”
And it was starting to scare him. I think he was scared. And he said, “I think I’m dying.”
At St Vincent’s Hospital, what Barnes thought might be pneumonia turned out to be much worse.
A team of specialists discovered that the rocker’s body was shutting down because an infection in his blood was causing endocarditis, a life-threatening inflammation of the heart.
‘It is fatal. “If he hadn’t died from the infection, he would have died of heart failure because the entire valve had collapsed,” stated cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Paul Jansz.
Jimmy Barnes (left) is pictured with his wife Jane (right) after open heart surgery.
Jimmy Barnes shows off the scar left by his open heart surgery, with a tattoo of his wife Jane’s name also visible
Pictured are Jimmy Barnes and his wife Jane. She barely left his side during her 26 days in the hospital.
When he was taken to the operating room for open heart surgery, his doctors said he only had hours to live.
‘When I thought about dying before surgery, I just thought, ‘You have to savor those moments; Have I told my children that I love them enough? Have I told Jane? The people you love, make sure you tell them,” Barnes said.
In a marathon seven-hour surgery, doctors replaced Barnes’ damaged valves and repaired his heart.
He passed the surgery, but the pain when he woke up was like nothing he had ever felt before.
“It’s like you’ve been cut in half,” he said. ‘Your best friend is a pillow. If you cough, it’s just agony. If you breathe too deeply, it’s agony. And sneezing would be the end of you.
But I think it has made me stronger. I want to be better than I was. I have this whole new life because of this and I want to make the most of it. I want every minute to count.’
Barnes has gained a new appreciation for some of the simpler things in life, like having Sunday lunch with the family.
He is filled with gratitude for his doctors and his wife, who were barely apart from him during his 26 days in the hospital.
‘Without a doubt, the fact that my family was there and Jane was there, I wasn’t going anywhere. He wanted to spend every breath he could with Jane. And if that meant fighting to live longer, I was going to do it,” she stated.
Barnes has gained a new appreciation for some of the simpler things in life, like Sunday lunch with family (pictured with some of her grandchildren).
Having had open heart surgery doesn’t mean Barnes (pictured) should avoid fruit salad
Surprisingly, his recovery is going well, Barnes is set to make his live music return on Easter Sunday at the Byron Bay Bluesfest.
When asked by 60 Minutes reporter Sylvia Jeffreys about this quick return, Barnes spread his arms like a crucifix and joked that it would be the day of his resurrection.
‘I miss being on stage, I have to do it, I have no other option. I need to go out and scream, that just clears your emotions,” she said.