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Queen's Brian May says wife Anita Dobson saved him after heart attack

Brian May, Anita Dobson during the Bohemian Rhapsody special New York Screening, held at the Paris Theatre in New York City, Tuesday, October 30, 2018. (Photo by Elise Leclerc/Sipa USA)
Brian May and Anita Dobson (Elise Leclerc/Sipa USA)

Brian May has credited his wife Anita Dobson with saving his life after he suffered a heart attack.

The Queen guitarist, 73, revealed in May that he had to undergo surgery to fit three stents after suffering a heart attack.

He has now told how he deteriorated afterwards, telling the Express: “It was the worst thing, the complications that came on afterwards from the drugs that you have to take actually nearly killed me – much more than the heart attack.

“For about a month I could hardly crawl across the floor, I was really, really bad.”

Read more: Queen's Brian May says he had a 'stomach explosion' that nearly killed him

May said it’s because of his “incredible” wife of 20 years that he is still here.

Brian May and Anita Dobson attending the 72nd British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London
Brian May and Anita Dobson (PA)

“She totally saved my life because I couldn’t do anything and she just kind of nursed me, so I will forever be in her debt, she did an incredible job on me,” he said of the former EastEnders star.

The musician said it is still not clear why he had a heart attack in the first place.

He told the paper he was the fittest person on the last Queen tour, has never smoked, doesn’t drink much and doesn’t eat fatty foods.

However, May said he has a “theory” that he may have had an undetected case of the coronavirus.

The star said he had a “pretty bad cough” and “felt pretty grim” during Queen’s tour of Korea, Japan and Australia in January and now wonders whether he had the virus and whether it “thickened the blood” and possibly triggered the heart attack.

Doctors have said the virus can cause a person's blood to thicken.

The virus was first reported in China in December 2019 and it was in February 2020 that the first person in the UK tested positive.

Read more: Brian May says he's been crawling around the house in health update

May has suffered a series of health issues in recent months.

In December, the rock star shared that he had undergone surgery on his leg to help treat a “painful heel situation” and earlier this year he told fans on Instagram that he had to go to hospital after ripping his buttock muscle “to shreds” during some “over-enthusiastic gardening”.

Watch: Adam Lambert says Brian May is doing better following heart attack