From Lyme disease to open throat surgery, Shania Twain’s medical history hasn’t been too forgiving. Even living off Lake Geneva in Switzerland couldn’t protect the country-pop star from health emergencies; as she recalled in a new interview with UK outlet Mirror, she had to be airlifted to a hospital in a helicopter when she came down with COVID pneumonia and couldn’t breathe properly.
“It was progressively getting worse,” Twain said. “My vital signs were getting worse… and in the end I had to be air evacuated.”
Getting Twain up in the air might’ve been relatively simple, but finding somewhere to land was another story. She recalled her husband “really panicking” as he attempted to locate accommodations for her, as hospital beds were extremely limited in availability.
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“It was like science fiction, I felt like I was going to another planet or something,” she added. “It all kind of happened in slow motion.” Eventually, Twain found a hospital bed, where she was isolated and treated with plasma therapy until she was back on her feet.
“It took several days to start building up any antibodies at all, so it was a very dangerous time and very scary,” she says. “I made it through and I’m just so grateful… I thought, ‘Wow, if I was living alone in a more isolated scenario, I don’t know what would have happened.’ My heart goes out to people who don’t have that support to help them get the right care.”
Once she was healthy again, Twain got back to writing music, including songs that we’ll hear on her upcoming album Queen of Me. She touches on her experience with COVID on one of its songs, aptly titled “Inhale/Exhale Air”: “It’s a song of gratitude and appreciation,” she said. “I was inspired that I still had air in my lungs.”
Queen of Me is out this Friday, February 3rd, and Twain has already previewed the record with the singles “Waking Up Dreaming” and “Giddy Up!” We’re happy to hear she’s back in good health, in part because that means she can go on her upcoming “Queen of Me Tour.” Grab tickets for that over at StubHub.
