Things have never truly been the same for Miami Heat legend Chris Bosh. What began in 2015 brought one of the NBA’s brightest careers to an abrupt end and changed his life forever. The two-time NBA champion retired in 2019 after recurring blood clots made playing impossible. Now 42, Bosh has revealed he recently endured another terrifying health scare that nearly cost him everything.

“I had an episode in January. I almost dropped dead pretty much and came back to life. I’m not joking,” the Hall of Famer shared in an interview with Sam Yip of HoopsHype. “I had another pulmonary embolism. It was in January this past year. I was in the hospital for a week.

“I’m taking my medicine every day, taking care of myself every day and watching this. I mean, no symptoms came either. But it’s kind of have to do with it for the rest. Yeah, you’ve got to deal with it for the rest of your life. I thought I was past it. I am not. So, it’s just making sure I stay on top of my regimen.”

That moment was extremely terrifying for him, and he in fact shared how deeply it affected him in a personal essay published on his Substack, The Last Chip.

“I blacked out. There was only confusion. Everything happened so fast,” he shared in his essay titled Return from the Darkness.

In the same article, he laid out how an ordinary evening turned into one of the scariest moments of his life. He recalled walking from his closet to the bathroom, getting ready for what he thought was going to be a relaxing evening out with his wife. Instead, in a flash, everything changed when he felt a sudden numbing sensation shoot down his left leg. Then, he collapsed.

When he did regain consciousness, he found himself lying in a pool of his own blood. Meanwhile, his wife was desperately trying to speak with 911.

“I tried to move my body the way I always had, and it didn’t respond,” he shared. That undoubtedly is a scary experience, but he revealed that it was also one that changed the way he looked at life.

He admitted that he had become too caught up chasing all that momentum and measuring success against what he saw online. But surviving another life-threatening health scare urged him to focus more on the people and passions already in his life.

The latest scare is a painful reminder of the silent battle that Bosh has been fighting for more than a decade now.

In 2015, while playing for the Miami Heat, chest pain led doctors to discover a dangerous blood clot in his lungs for the first time. Doctors performed emergency procedures to drain fluid, and after recovering, he returned for the following season. However, that relief proved temporary.

In 2016, another round of blood clots changed everything. Blood thinners became essential, leaving professional basketball far too risky to continue. As a result, the Heat eventually waived Bosh, and he officially retired in 2019.

Now, Bosh, after going through so much, understands better than most what athletes face after getting such a diagnosis. So when Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama saw his season cut short by deep vein thrombosis, Bosh understood what the young star might be feeling. Drawing from his own experience, he had one simple piece of advice.

“Take your medicine. Make sure that he’s staying on top of his regimen to make sure that doesn’t happen again because it only takes one more time. It happened one more time for me, it happened twice, and I couldn’t play anymore. So I guess with him, just making sure he does everything necessary to keep that blood as thin as possible and take care of that body off the court.”

These stories are a reminder of just how dangerous pulmonary embolism can be, even years after an initial diagnosis.

What is pulmonary embolism?

Pulmonary embolism, also known as a lung clot, happens when a blood clot blocks an artery in the lungs, often after traveling from deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the legs or pelvis. As blood flow drops, oxygen levels fall, creating a medical emergency.

Common warning signs include sudden shortness of breath, sharp chest pain, a rapid heartbeat, fast breathing, coughing up blood, dizziness, and fainting. Risk also rises after surgery, long trips, pregnancy, birth control pills, cancer, heart disease, and inherited clotting disorders.

Moreover, pulmonary embolism remains alarmingly common. It ranks as the 3rd leading cause of cardiovascular death after heart attacks and strokes. Around 1 in 1,000 people develop it each year.

Doctors diagnose around 600,000 cases annually in the US and nearly 10 million cases of DVT and pulmonary embolism worldwide. Although the disease affects fewer than 1 in 100,000 children, it strikes about 1 in 100 people each year after age 75. It also appears in roughly 1% of hospital admissions.

Looking back at everything that Bosh had gone through, he left his fans and readers a little message in his essay:

“Why wait? Pay attention to yourself and those around you. The ordinary parts of life don’t feel meaningful until they’re taken away. And by then, it’s too late.”