When 13-year-old Osi Umenyiora lived in Nigeria, doctors had to remove his appendix after he developed appendicitis. Umenyiora was expected to recover from that surgery like most people and never deal with complications again. But in rare cases, scar tissue can form and cause intestinal blockage, and that’s exactly what happened with Umenyiora years after he retired from the NFL. 

After the surgery, Umenyiora spent nearly 30 years battling on football fields as one of the NFL’s top defensive ends. The New York Giants drafted him in 2003, and he played 11 seasons with the franchise, winning two Super Bowl rings. But at the same time, scar tissue was building up inside Umenyiora’s body until it eventually strangled his intestine. Nobody realized anything was wrong with Umenyiora until the situation turned critical.

While appearing on the NFL Players’ Second Acts podcast last week, the Giants legend revealed how close he came to death due to that complication. 

“I was literally on TV on air doing my broadcast, and I just started feeling really, really sick, and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Osi Umenyiora said. “So, I got off, went home, and by the time I got home, I was just delirious. I was in complete shock. I was throwing up everywhere. It was really bad. Got rushed to the hospital, and they ran their test, and then they were like, ‘Okay, we’re going to have this emergency surgery.’

“Opened me up, and that’s when they found what was going on. At that point, I just blacked out. So I was in a coma for, I think, it was like five days. Went through a lot of tough situations. They had to resuscitate me and everything, man. So, it was a really tough situation. I was in the hospital for about a month, fought through all of that, and came out of it and everything.”

For more than a decade since retiring in 2015, Osi Umenyiora has worked as an NFL analyst and appeared regularly on television. But shortly after one of those appearances in London, his health suddenly took a turn for the worse. Doctors performed extensive emergency surgery on Umenyiora and placed him in a coma for five days.

When Umenyiora finally woke up, he immediately noticed his older brother sitting beside him with a serious expression. Confused and disoriented, he thought he was still in London. Since his brother lives in California, Umenyiora instantly realized something had gone terribly wrong. But soon after, Umenyiora saw doctors and family members around him looking relieved.

“My sister was telling me that they didn’t know if I was going to come out of it or not,” Umenyiora said while recalling what happened after he came out of a coma. “The doctors had told them that they had done everything they could. So, everything was just going to be based upon how I was able to recover and my strength, and luckily, I was able to do that. It was crazy, man. It was pretty touch-and-go there.”

Osi Umenyiora built his NFL career on surviving battles in the trenches. Back in 2008, he helped the Giants’ defense sack New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady five times to win Super Bowl XLII. But despite everything he experienced on the field, the former Giants star admitted this health scare became the toughest fight of his life.

The health scare has changed Osi Umenyiora’s outlook on life 

At 44, Osi Umenyiora spent nearly a month in the hospital and could barely care for himself. Umenyiora was at his lowest, but his mother bathed him and helped him recover. Now, the Giants’ legend admitted that the experience completely changed how he views life, relationships, and time itself. 

“1000 percent, my outlook on life is so different,” Osi Umenyiora said. “Everybody thinks that you have time. But you don’t have time. You could be sitting there on TV, and we could be doing what you’re doing right now, and then within an hour, your whole life can change upside down. And we don’t really, I think, understand that; we don’t appreciate that. And so for me, it’s just about spending time with people whom I love and being around them.

“I’ve been to Nigeria twice in the past month. I’m everywhere because everything my family needs, anything they want, they say, ‘Hey, I am gone because I want to be around people who really care.’ And you find out then, too, who really cares about you in a situation like that, because especially for us, you’ve had the burden of taking care of so many people for so long, and then you get in a vulnerable situation, and then they have to take care of you.”

Osi Umenyiora has also revealed that his close friend Jason Bell stayed by his side throughout the health emergency. The two first became teammates while playing for the Giants in 2006, and their friendship has lasted nearly 20 years. Today, they co-host The Breakdown podcast together, and Bell was right beside Umenyiora when he shared his experience of being in a coma.

“It’s been eye-opening for me, and I’m just happy to be here,” Umenyiora concluded. “Happy to be alive and happy to be around good people.”

The near-death experience may have changed Umenyiora forever, but it also gave him something invaluable: a deeper appreciation for every day he gets to spend with the people he loves.