U2 rockstar Bono has told of his brush with death during Christmas in 2016 after he had to undergo open-heart surgery.
The frontman underwent a critical eight-hour operation to repair a “blister” that had developed on his heart, after it became stressed.
Reading an excerpt from his book, Bono reveals he would be dead had it not been for the actions of his quick-thinking doctors.
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He said: “I shouldn’t be here ‘cause I should be dead. I can see the lights in front of me. I believe my best days are ahead. I can see the lights in front of me.
“I was born with an eccentric heart. In one of the chambers of my heart where most people have three doors, I have two. Two swinging doors and on Christmas 2016 they were coming off the hinges.
“The aorta is your main artery, your lifeline, carrying the blood, oxygenated by your lungs and becoming your life.
“We discovered that my heart has been stressed over time and it developed a blister. A blister that was about to burst, which will put me in the next life faster than I can make an emergency call, faster than I can say goodbye to this life.”
The star was admitted to the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City where he went under the knife in order to fix the problem.
“I know it’s not going to feel like a good day when I wake up after these eight hours of surgery, but I also know that waking up is better than the alternative,” Bono said.
“Even if I can’t breathe and feel as if I am suffocating. Even if I’m desperately drawing for air and can’t find any. Even if I’m hallucinating, 'cause I’m seeing visions now and it’s all getting a little William Blake.”
The Elevation hitmaker recalled the medical issue and the subsequent procedure in his new memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, which was released on November 1.
The 576-page Surrender… explores the origins of 40 key songs in U2’s extensive discography. Each chapter is named for the tune it covers, with Bono’s life story weaved throughout.
The story of his 2016 heart surgery comes under the ‘Lights Of Home’ chapter; the track in question appears on U2’s 2017 album ‘Songs Of Experience’.
Elsewhere in the book, Bono talks about discovering that his cousin is also his half-brother, the alleged death threats he’s received in his life, and the 2014 controversy in which U2 arranged for their album ‘Songs Of Innocence‘ to be automatically downloaded onto the devices of 500 million iTunes users.
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