Lucky To Be Alive! 10 Stars Who Survived Near-Death Experiences
Mar. 24 2016, Updated 9:57 a.m. ET
Hollywood almost said goodbye to Lamar Odom and Tracy Morgan – but the celebrities fought for their lives by making miraculous recoveries! From fatal accidents to terminal illnesses, find out which stars cheated death.
Dick Cheney had many brushes with death throughout the years because of his battle with heart disease. The 75-year-old survived five heart attacks, open-heart surgery and a heart transplant.
Bret Michaels overcame a brain hemorrhage, which doctors explained only 10 to 20 percent of patients survive. "Mr. Michaels was indeed a lucky person, a very lucky person," said his doctor Joseph Zabramski during a press conference.
Lil Wayne's epilepsy almost took his life when a seizer lowered his heart to a dangerous rate. "I'm prone to seizures," he said to Power 106. "This time it got real bad 'cause I had three of them in a row and on the third one, my heart rate went down to like 30 percent. Basically, I could've died."
Lamar Odom fought for his life when he was found unconscious at a Las Vegas brothel from a drug overdose. When the 36-year-old woke up from a four-day coma, he suffered multiple strokes, and reportedly had kidney damage. But the former NBA player miraculously recovered, as he recently travelled to New York City with his estranged wife Khloe Kardashian for New York Fashion Week.
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Valerie Harper had three months to live when she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, but she beat the odds by battling the disease for over three years now.
Travis Barker was involved in a plane crash that killed four people. "I thought I was going to die for sure," the musician told the New York Post. Barker caught fire and escaped the plane 60 seconds before it exploded. The 40-year-old was left with third-degree burns on 65 percent of his body. He underwent 16 surgeries during his months-long stay in the hospital.
Harrison Ford was in critical condition when the vintage plane he was flying crashed on a golf course right after takeoff. The actor had no memory of the accident, which was caused by engine failure, that left him with a broken pelvis and ankle, a laceration on his head and more.
Michael Douglas beat stage IV tongue cancer in January 2011. The actor revealed how two American doctors missed a tumor on his tongue before a doctor in Montreal saved his life by discovering the cancer months later.
Tracy Morgan almost lost his life when he was involved in a fatal car accident that left his friend James "Uncle Jimmy Mack" McNair dead. The comedian was in critical condition when he was airlifted to the hospital. "I went to the other side," he told Complex magazine. "This is not something I'm making up. Do you know what God said to me? He said, 'Your room ain't ready. I still got something for you to do.'"
Cheryl Cole contracted Malaria while on a safari in Tanzania in June 2010. On her way home from the trip, she noticed three painful mosquito bites. “Both lungs were filled with fluid, my liver three times normal size and I was five minutes from needing life long kidney dialysis,” she wrote in her book Cheryl: My Story. “They put a catheter in me and I heard someone say: ‘If she doesn’t get rid of some of this fluid in the next 24 hours, we’ve lost her.’”