Former NBA star Chris Bosh has recounted a terrifying medical experience after he suddenly collapsed while preparing for a date with his wife.
The 11-time All Star took to Instagram on Wednesday to share the story with his followers, captioning the post: “Some things change you overnight.”
“So I woke up covered in my own blood. It was crazy. It was fast. It was instant,” Bosh, 41, began in the video.
“There was no warning. I had no time to prepare. I was getting ready to go on a date with my wife and the next thing I knew I was on the floor.”
“I won't go into details,” he continued, “but you can see I'm still recovering.” [points to face]. I'm not going to try to hide it in case I look different, but it was kind of scary and it came fast… I'm lucky to be back. It was just darkness, it was nothing more. I went into the dark, I came back. I don't have any memories. I have no other memory than coming back here. So don't wait.”
In the comments section, other NBA stars and celebrities shared messages of support.
“Praying for you CB,” wrote Kevin Durant.
“Praying for you CB! Sending great [love emoji] and powerful [prayer emoji]” Dale added actress Gabrielle Union.
Jamie Foxx, who also suffered a mysterious health scare in 2023, shared three prayer emojis.
Bosh also wrote about the health issue on his Substack blog, The last token.
In an article titled “Return from the Dark,” the basketball star wrote: “I blacked out. I didn't see my life flash before my eyes. There was no fear or a rush of thoughts. There was only confusion. It all happened so quickly.”
He said he was walking from his closet to the bathroom while getting ready for the night when, as he put it, “my body just turned on me.”
“A numb feeling ran down my left leg, that sharp, electric feeling you get when you hit your funny bone. Before I knew it, I was on the ground,” he said. Letters to a young athlete wrote the author.
“I slowly came to in a pool of my own blood while my wife frantically talked to 911. I tried to move my body like I always had and it didn't respond,” he said.
“…There's not always a warning. There's not always a symptom or a preparation that lets you know what's coming. One moment you're walking. The next moment, you could be gone.”
Bosh said that “before that moment” he thought he was “in control.”
“I was still trying to shape my post-professional career and set the tone for my future,” he wrote. “I was chasing something… drive, validation, direction, acceptance, something I couldn't quite grasp.”
Bosh continued, “Without fully realizing it, I began trying to keep up with what I was seeing online, modeling myself after those 'success markers,' whether I knew it or not. I didn't realize how disconnected I had become from myself and my surroundings in the process.
“Surviving didn't magically fix anything. To be honest, I thought life owed me more after surviving a health situation that ended my previous career. I just knew I was smarter than before. Things like this would only happen to other people. Not to me. I was wrong,” he wrote.
“After returning from the darkness, there was no euphoric clarity. No montage of life flashed before my eyes. No voice in my ear telling me everything will be okay and what to do next. Just gratitude for still being alive, and a sobering new awareness of what it's all really like.”
He said his “immediate view of life” is now “simpler and more honest.”
Bosh has now made the decision to “focus on the passions and people that were already coming into my life, rather than seeking validation from the unknown and from those who did not reciprocate with the same energy that I gave them.”
Ask yourself: “Why wait?” Bosh shared, “Pay attention to yourself and those around you. Think critically about where your time goes and why. Good or bad, pay attention to it. The ordinary parts of life don't feel meaningful until they're taken away. And by then, it's too late.”
“This experience motivated me to start writing again, to share my experiences and stories with the hope that we can get something out of it and grow together,” he concluded.
