Alonzo Mourning Quotes

The doctor told Phil, my then husband, that my condition was really bad news. They had found an artery tearing and said I could die. They said they could try to patch it up but it could go horribly wrong. It all turned out okay in the end but it was touch and go.

Serkin was so sick he almost died for three days.

In the case of my husband, we found that facing a life-threatening illness prodded us to make a dramatic change in our lives.

My consultant keeps telling me sudden death could come at any moment.

Dear Friend: I have nearly died three times since morning.

Nothing like a little chest pain to restore your faith.

For all of my life I'd been extremely healthy. I'd never had any health issues, so to go from being perfectly healthy to having this very rare disease was scary. In a lot of people it is very severe. Some people go blind, you can have neuro-lesions which affect your brain, so I was very nervous.

I had my first seizure, and I had to go in for heart surgery.

I finally admitted that obesity and diabetes were part of a life-threatening legacy - and I had to deal with that reality or die.

In 1962 I was diagnosed with this incurable disease.

Serious is when they tell you, 'You've got cancer.' Cancer is serious, but then the rest of it is not.

The rumor that the state of my health will necessitate my resignation is entirely unfounded.

Dad almost died of a heart attack in the middle of making Apocalypse Now, the biggest movie of his life. It doesn't make you want to jump into that business.

In 2003, I almost died of an intestinal blockage when I was on a mountain in Chile, filming a segment for 'Scientific American Frontiers.'

I was so unhealthy as a child, and at least three or four times my parents were told to get ready, that I would not make it.

Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence, accident, or disease.

When my little son, Prince, had health issues as a baby, we were told that he had a 20 percent chance of survival.

'Incurable' is a tough word. So is 'terminal.'

The brain aneurysm I had in 2006 put things into perspective. It made me understand what was really important - to enjoy life, take more risks and stop putting things off.

I blacked out in a Rite Aid. The doctor told me my heart function was at 5 percent. I spent two months in the hospital waiting to have a transplant. For me, that was the end of the world.

Addiction has a worse prognosis than most cancers. I tell someone they have cancer and they want to be airlifted to a cancer treatment center; I tell someone they have an addiction and they're going to die and they want to argue with me about the treatment.

I had open heart surgery, exploratory surgery in my stomach, bilateral chest tubes... all this stuff.

When doctors tell you that your only hope for survival is 14 straight days of intense chemotherapy, 24 hours a day, you sit there, and you count down the 336 hours. You see, each day is a blessing.

I was 19 years old, and I felt like I had the flu one day. Within 24 hours, I was in the hospital on life support, and I was given less than a 2 percent chance of living. It took five days for the doctors to find out that I had contracted bacterial meningitis.

I am incredibly lucky to be alive because one in three people who have strokes don't make it.