{"id":20504,"date":"2011-12-23T17:10:48","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T17:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/george-michael-thanks-doctors-for-saving-his-life-after-battling-pneumonia\/"},"modified":"2011-12-23T17:10:48","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T17:10:48","slug":"george-michael-thanks-doctors-for-saving-his-life-after-battling-pneumonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/23\/george-michael-thanks-doctors-for-saving-his-life-after-battling-pneumonia\/","title":{"rendered":"George Michael thanks doctors for saving his life after battling pneumonia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- google_ad_section_start(name=s2) --><\/p>\n<p>\nBy<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/home\/search.html?s=&#038;authornamef=Sarah+Bull\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sarah Bull<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last updated at 5:10 PM on 23rd December 2011<\/p>\n<p><span>George Michael has issued a statement about his health today, reassuring fans he is on the road to recovery and thanking the hospital who treated him for saving his life.<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 48-year-old singer, who had been in Austria being treated for pneumonia, admitted he was still feeling weak following the illness, and said it had been &#8216;touch and go&#8217; whether he would survive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Michael, who wore a scarf and sunglasses as he spoke to the press outside his home in Highgate, thanked everyone for their support.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/32acarticle-2078057-0F43A21600000578-337_634x583.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"583\" alt=\"'I'm lucky to be alive': George Michael gave a press conference today reassuring fans that he is on the road to recovery after battling pneumonia\" class=\"blkBorder\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I&#8217;m lucky to be alive&#8217;: George Michael gave a press conference today reassuring fans that he is on the road to recovery after battling pneumonia<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/23\/article-2078057-0F43A2C700000578-311_634x540.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"540\" alt=\"Announcement: Michael spoke against the backdrop of a Christmas tree outside his London home\" class=\"blkBorder\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Announcement: Michael spoke against the backdrop of a Christmas tree outside his London home<\/p>\n<p><span>Asked how he was feeling, Michael &#8211; who was supported throughout his ordeal by his boyfriend Fadi Fawaz, ex-partner Kenny Goss and 75-year-old father Kyriacos Panayiotou and older sisters Melanie and Yioda &#8211; said: &#8216;I feel amazing. I mean, I&#8217;m very weak but I feel amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;I got streptagotta-something &#8211; it was a form of pneumonia and they basically spent three weeks keeping me alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I don&#8217;t want to take you through all of it because some of it I want to protect my family from, but it was by far the worst month of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Emotional: Michael appeared to be struggling to hold back his tears at points during the press conference<\/p>\n<div>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/23\/article-2078057-0EEE87FA00000578-626_634x429.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"429\" alt=\"Thankful: Michael also revealed he would be performing a special one-off concert to say thank you to the doctors at the AKH hospital in Vienna\" class=\"blkBorder\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Thankful: Michael also revealed he would be performing a special one-off concert to say thank you to the doctors at the AKH hospital in Vienna<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>&#8216;But I&#8217;m incredibly fortunate to be here<br \/>\nand incredibly fortunate to have picked up this bug where I did because<br \/>\napparently the hospital in Austria that they rushed me to was the best<br \/>\nplace in the world I could have been to deal with pneumonia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;So I have to believe that somebody believes I&#8217;ve still got some work to do here.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Asked what kept him going through his illness, Michael replied: &#8216;My family, and the thought of all the people I still have to play to. <\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Good spirits: Despite admitting he was &#8216;weak&#8217; the singer appeared relatively well as he spoke to waiting journalists<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>&#8216;The fact I&#8217;ve been so lucky and the<br \/>\nfact that I still have plenty to live for &#8211; I have this amazing, amazing<br \/>\nlife and if I wasn&#8217;t spiritual enough before the last 4 or 5 weeks then<br \/>\nI certainly am now.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Michael<br \/>\nalso revealed he had had tracheotomy, a procedure which involves making<br \/>\nan incision in the trachea to open up the airways, during his time at<br \/>\nthe<\/span><span> AKH clinic in Vienna, Austria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He said:&#8217;I&#8217;d say it was touch and go<br \/>\nfor a couple of weeks. We played it down because I didn&#8217;t want to worry<br \/>\nmy fans too much &#8211; I&#8217;m sorry I couldn&#8217;t contact them before now but I<br \/>\nwasn&#8217;t in any state to do so.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/23\/article-2078057-0F43AE1700000578-951_634x718.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"718\" alt=\"Grateful: The singer clutches flowers from a well-wisher as he heads inside\" class=\"blkBorder\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Grateful: The singer clutches flowers from a well-wisher as he heads inside<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/23\/article-2078057-0F43B0A300000578-853_634x490.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"490\" alt=\"Generous: A plate of empty mince pie wrappers is seen on the floor. Michael provided photographers and journalists with festive treats before the conference\" class=\"blkBorder\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Generous: A plate of empty mince pie wrappers is seen on the floor. Michael provided photographers and journalists with festive treats before the conference<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>When<br \/>\nasked by journalists what his plan is now, Michael struggled to hold<br \/>\nback tears as he replied: &#8216;The plan is to play to every person who had a<br \/>\nticket to see me, and I would like to play one other show for the<br \/>\ndoctors in Austria who saved my life, because I have spent the last 10<br \/>\ndays thanking people for saving my life &#8211; and that&#8217;s not something I<br \/>\nhave had to do before.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;I really<\/span><span> <\/span><span>from the bottom of my heart thank everyone for sending messages, and everyone in that ICU unit who saved my life<\/span>.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><span>As he made his way back inside his home, Michael was asked if the illness had made him reassess things, to which he replied: &#8216;Yes, definitely &#8211; I&#8217;m a new man.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span>Michael had to cancel all the remaining shows on his &#8216;Symphonica Tour&#8217; when he fell ill in November.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In late November, a statement released by Michael&#8217;s doctors revealed that the singer was &#8216;improving steadily.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/23\/article-2078057-0F43554C00000578-172_634x508.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"508\" alt=\"Preparing for a party? Catering equipment and fridges were seen being delivered to the singer's house today\" class=\"blkBorder\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Preparing for a party? Catering equipment and fridges were seen being delivered to the singer&#8217;s house today<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Preparations: Crates of food were also delivered to the property this morning<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end(name=s2) --><\/p>\n<p>More:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/article-2078057\/George-Michael-thanks-doctors-saving-life-battling-pneumonia.html?ITO=1490\" title=\"George Michael thanks doctors for saving his life after battling pneumonia\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">George Michael thanks doctors for saving his life after battling pneumonia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> By Sarah Bull Last updated at 5:10 PM on 23rd December 2011 George Michael has issued a statement about his health today, reassuring fans he is on the road to recovery and thanking the hospital who treated him for saving his life. The 48-year-old singer, who had been in Austria being treated for pneumonia, admitted he was still feeling weak following the illness, and said it had been &#8216;touch and go&#8217; whether he would survive. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>George Michael thanks doctors for saving his life after battling pneumonia - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/23\/george-michael-thanks-doctors-for-saving-his-life-after-battling-pneumonia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"George Michael thanks doctors for saving his life after battling pneumonia - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Sarah Bull Last updated at 5:10 PM on 23rd December 2011 George Michael has issued a statement about his health today, reassuring fans he is on the road to recovery and thanking the hospital who treated him for saving his life. 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