Bam Margera Says ‘I Was Pronounced Dead’ After Suffering Five Seizures, Pneumonia in December: ‘Each Seizure Lasted 10 to 20 Minutes’
Bam Margera reunited with his former “Jackass” collaborator Steve-O on the most recent episode of the latter’s “Wild Ride” podcast and opened up about his December 2022 hospitalization. News broke Dec. 9 that Margera had been put on a ventilator and was unable to breathe on his own after contracting pneumonia. Margera revealed to Steve-O that his pneumonia was only one factor behind his hospitalization, as he also suffered five different seizures.
“Basically, I was pronounced dead on Dec. 8,” Margera said. “I did not know that I had gnarly COVID and my body was shutting down. I went into four seizures, each one lasting 10 to 20 minutes. 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. I was drinking the infected blood which gave me pneumonia as well.”
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Margera continued, “I went to the hospital and had my fifth seizure and then couldn’t breathe without a tube down my throat. I woke up five days later thinking I was there for just a couple hours. I spent eight days in there. When they took that tube out I felt like I sucked on Darth Vader’s dick.”
Steve-O recalled reading the news about Margera being put on a ventilator and thinking the “Jackass” star would lose his life. Margera and Steve-O both got their start in Hollywood on the MTV prank-stunt series, but Margera was not involved in last year’s feature film “Jackass Forever” because he broke a clause in his contract that required him to stay sober during production.
Margera filed a lawsuit last August against Paramount and “Jackass” ringleader Johnny Knoxville over the firing, claiming the creators coerced him into signing the “wellness agreement” for the movie while he was still in rehab. The suit alleged that Margera was fired after testing positive for Adderall, even though he had an Adderall prescription for 10 years. The lawsuit was eventually settled.
Watch Margera’s full interview on Steve-O’s “Wild Ride” podcast below.
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