We hadn't heard much from Eric Church in a while, but now we've got a new single on the radio, and a new album coming from him in October, but did you know that about a year ago Eric Church almost died? Eric sat down with Rolling Stone Magazine to talk about everything happening in his life right now, and they uncovered the scary story!
Eric Church was wrapping up his tour last year, and had noticed some tingling in his arm, but really didn't think much about it at the time. After the tour wrapped, he returned to the his mountain home in Western North Carolina, and was texting about golf. Little did he know his life was about to change.
While texting, Eric noticed his left hand wasn't responding the way it should be, and this was the same hand that had been tingling. Obviously now he was concerned, and so he went to the bathroom, took off his shirt, and that was when he noticed his left arm was red and swollen.
His wife was in Nashville at the time, so Eric got with the nanny's to make sure the kids were ok, and he drove himself to the doctor. They wanted to do an ultrasound, but the closest one was in Boone, so they wrapped him up and Eric drove himself there for the procedure.
Eric waited for what seemed like forever for the results, but when the doctor returned, he told Eric that he had a blood clot in his chest, and that he would need surgery right away. Eric sensed the urgency, and asked the doc if he could die, to which the doctor replied, "Today"
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So how had this happened? When the ultrasound was done, it was discovered that Eric had a birth defect in his top rib. Whenever he would lift his arm it would pinch his vein, damaging it, and where it had been trying to heal is where the blood clot had formed.
After reaching out to his wife, and other family members, the arrangements were made. Eric would go to Duke for the surgery. Because of the risks of the clot blowing, Eric couldn't fly or be transported by helicopter, so they gave him blood thinners and took him by ambulance to the hospital.
Once there, Eric truly realized the severity of the situation. He thought he would be checked in, and that the surgery would be the following day. That wasn't the case. He walked in to the ICU to find the surgeon ready to go, already in scrubs, saying that they were going to do the surgery right away.
Surgery was a success, taking 3 days to recover, and then a week later Eric had the top rib removed!
He returned home to rest and fully recover, but never told anyone until now when he sat down with Rolling Stone Magazine for their cover story.
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The article in Rolling Stone covers so much more, including his thoughts on politics (Trump vs Hillary), the NFL protests, the state of country music, even the new lakes he is building, and to read the interview in its entirety, it can be found right here!