I was so terrified of dying that I made a heartbreaking decision in hospital, reveals Max George as he lifts the lid on pacemaker operation

BEATEN pop star Max George told how he wrote his will on his phone in hospital because he feared he would die.

The wanted singer36 years old, it was ran to the emergency room last month and submitted life-saving pacemaker surgery in Manchester.

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Max says his mother, Babs, saved his life after helping him receive emergency treatment for his heart condition.

In his first interview since the ordeal, Max says he feared he would die. in the hospital This is how he wrote his will on his iPhone.

He also tells how the first person he saw after his three-hour surgery was the actress’ girlfriend. Maisie Smithsaying, “My heart rate started to skyrocket. “I felt alive again.”

He also spoke of seeing the surgeon’s “bloody” hands during the operation last month.

Max’s medical drama began when he woke up frozen and with blue hands on December 11.

At the time he was with his mother Babs, 63, at her home in Manchester after returning from a month-long tour of the United States.

He recalled: “I hadn’t been feeling well for a few days, I started to feel a little bad.

“I couldn’t identify it. I was pretty lethargic and stuff, struggling to get out of bed. But I didn’t think it was anything serious.

“Luckily I had gone to my mother’s house to stay and I woke up and I remember looking at my hands and they were blue, and my arms were gray and I was very cold. I had a hard time even sitting up in bed.”

‘Mom walked through the door and gasped’

Max managed to crawl downstairs, where his mother, who works in health caremaintained a blood pressure monitor.

He said: “My blood pressure was quite low and so was my pulse and I realised: ‘Something’s not right here.’

“As I was doing that, my mom came through the door and gasped. She said, ‘What’s wrong? You’re sad. I need to call the doctor now.'”

Babs took Max to her family doctorwhere they gave him a check-up but then sent him home.

Undeterred, she insisted he call a doctor friend, who told him to go straight to the ER.

He said: “At that moment I had a feeling of panic, but I was also absolutely devastated.

“I couldn’t move my arms and the worst feeling was that I felt like my throat was closing.

“I felt like someone had their hands around my neck.

“Thank God I stayed at my mom’s house; she saved my life.”

Doctors took Max’s pulse at the hospital before wheeling him into the cardiology ward, where they gave him shocking news.

I remember looking at my hands and they were blue, and my arms were gray and I was freezing.

Max Jorge

He said: “The doctors asked me if I had heard of a pacemaker because they thought I would need one.

“They said, ‘There’s something not right at the bottom of your heart.

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“For some reason, the rhythm is very disturbed and the signal does not seem to reach from the upper chamber of the heart to the lower part, the part that pumps blood throughout the body.” “I was in complete shock.”

Max then broke the explosive news on WhatsApp to Maisie, who was 300 miles away in kent getting ready to go on stage pantomime.

He told how they made the decision that she should continue playing Bella in Beauty and the beast.

Max said: “She was in the right place and although it was difficult not having her around and her head was spinning, it was better for her to concentrate on her work. I had my family there.

“It was really scary, all sorts of things go through your head, and it’s certainly not a place I thought I’d be at 36 years old.

“I was awake all night, feeling a closing in my throat, it was really difficult for me to move and I was breathing very deeply and slowly.

“There was nothing they could do to stop that. He could have lived maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months, but it could have been a few hours. We didn’t know.

“I could only have lived like this in the state I was in. He would have been bedridden. “I couldn’t walk.”

the first Strictly The star revealed he was the youngest in the room by at least 30 years and feared he would die.

So he left instructions on his phone about what to do with his assets in case he didn’t make it. He said: “That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die.

Thank God I stayed at my mom’s house, she saved my life.

Max Jorge

“If I could go from being absolutely on top of the world to being told ‘the bottom half of your heart doesn’t work,’ I kept thinking in my head, ‘Well, what if the top half stopped working overnight?’ tomorrow?’

“When they tell you that, you really realize what your responsibilities are. I have a partner, Maisie, I have a family.

“I have two little nephews and all that really comes to the fore. I was in the heart room with about six older people, I was at least 30 years younger than them.”

Then, two days after being admitted to the hospital, Max’s heart rate had dropped to just 26 beats per minute, compared to a normal measurement of 60-100.

Max said: “Friday December 13 was the worst day I had there. My heart rate and blood pressure dropped at the same time, and that was the biggest concern.

“The consultants were not available to carry out the operation in case of emergency.

“It was pretty close that night, it really felt like my neck was closing and that’s when the kind of panic really set in. I felt like I was dying. It was the worst, I felt emotional.”

On December 15, Max was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital for a CT scan.

He said: “It was very cold and lasted an hour and a half. So when I came out I couldn’t move. It looked like that scene from ET, where he’s lying in the river.

“I could see myself in the reflection of the machine. My arms were blue. I had to be transported by ambulance. I was so cold I needed my blankets and my mother had brought me an electric blanket and small hand warmers.

“That was really difficult, because I just couldn’t move my hand. I kept thinking that if there was an accident in the ambulance, I would get nervous.”

To their relief, Max’s pacemaker operation was finally scheduled for December 18, exactly one week after he was admitted to the hospital.

He recalled: “I felt positive when they decided that because at least we had made a decision.

“Now we were working on something. I was absolutely excited. You miss little things like being able to go to the bathroom and shower by yourself. It seems like nothing, but after a week it’s a lot.”

“My mom brought a photo of Maisie and Albert, my bulldog, to keep on my bedside table, and a photo of my grandmother, who is 94 years old. That helped me move forward.”

Max’s operation lasted three hours, but was complicated by the collapse of his veins caused by his condition.

That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die

Max Jorge

Although he was conscious, he was heavily sedated with a medication called Midazolam and witnessed some gruesome scenes.

He said: “The surgery was quite mental. It was a really strange experience.

“The main problem they had when they opened me up and tried to put the wires in was that a lot of my veins had collapsed because my heart rate was so low and I was so dehydrated all the time. I could feel something moving on, but not much.

“I could see the surgeon through a window in a sheet over my head and I could see his frustrated expression.

“It’s grim, but I was looking at him and when he took his hands away, his gloves were covered in blood, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God!’ It was morbid. It was fucking with me, but once they started, I got excited.

“Finally they put the wires into my veins but then they had to receive a signal from the technician who has a iPad. “The surgeon asked if the pacemaker worked. “But the coach said, ‘There’s no signal.’

“At that point I started thinking, ‘What’s going to happen now? Why is there no signal?’”

Finally, the pacemaker came to life. And as Max began to focus on his surroundings, he was happy to see Maisie, who had interrupted her panto duties and fled north.

He said: “The first face I saw was Maisie’s and I remember it was very nice – like that was the first time I felt like a real person again and had a heart.

“By then I also had a proper heartbeat. My heart rate started to skyrocket. Then I remember feeling tingly in my feet, because I think obviously the blood started pumping properly.

“I thought, ‘Holy shit, I feel alive again,’ like that was a really nice feeling. It had been very difficult to be away from Maisie, but she climbed onto the bed, obviously lying on the other side of my chest towards my operation, and rested her head on top of me.

“We hugged for a couple of hours while I talked about American football and we treat it as normal. I could feel butterflies again next you.”

‘Listening to other people’s stories is inspiring’

city ​​man The fan Max decided make public your terrible experience posting a video for hospital fans on their social networks.

And he was delighted to communicate with other people who had similar conditions.

He said: “In addition to observing Manchester City in the hospital I spent a lot of time on social media trying to find other people who have been through the same thing.

“And it’s been amazing to do it, because hearing other people’s stories and what they do is inspiring.

“And it’s the people who have gotten much worse. heart conditions than me, who is doing so well. I already have a new community of people I’m talking to.

“The nurses on the ward were incredible, because they were the ones who were with me the entire time.

“One of them took his daughter to see the wanted So much so that it was nice to talk to her, just have a little bit of normality and talk about the things I love to do.

“They kept trying to calm my nerves and tell me I was in the right place if something happened. I received incredible care and I am very grateful to them.”

Max was discharged from hospital on December 23 and is now recovering at his £1.5million home in Manchester and enjoying going for walks with Albert.

• FOR more information and support on heart conditions, visit the British Heart Foundation charity at www.bhf.org.uk or call 0808 802 1234.

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