A comedian has returned to the stage more than a decade after suffering a heart attack mid-performance.
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Ted Robbins, 70, suffered a cardiac arrest during a solo sketch on the opening night of the Phoenix Nights Live tour in Manchester in January 2015 and had to be resuscitated. The UK comedian and actor recently made his return to the stage, headlining The Don Banks Afternoon Variety Show on 1 July at Darwen Library Theatre in Lancashire.
“It’s a smaller audience… but hopefully with a happier outcome,” he told the BBC leading up to the performance. His ribs had to be cracked open so that a conveniently off-duty cardiothoracic doctor and paramedic sitting in the audience could resuscitate him after his cardiac arrest.
Talk about an unexpected encore.
“Without them, I’d have been a goner in minutes,” he told the BBC. “I was due to have surgery for a faulty heart valve, which was caused when I was 11 and had rheumatic fever, which left a scar on it.”
“The surgeon had let me get on the stage because I said I really wanted to do the show. I got up, and I did get a few laughs, and I just remember thinking, ‘ooh, think I’ll lie down'”, the comedian recalled.
Comedian Ted Robbins Recalls Collapsing on Stage: ‘I Was Clinically Dead’
Speaking to The Mirror shortly after the incident, Robbins revealed he was clinically dead for 15 minutes, while his wife and daughter (Judy and Molly) watched the entire ordeal from the audience.
“I still find it hard to talk about, especially because of what Judy and Molly went through watching me. It must’ve been far worse for them than it was for me,” he told the outlet.
“I was clinically dead,” he added. “The paramedic said the chances of making a recovery like mine were just 8%. He told me: ‘Ted, you are walking rocking horse s—!’”
During his recovery, Robbins lost 40 pounds as his broken ribs and fractured sternum slowly healed. Ever the optimist, he brushed it off with a laugh: “What’s a few broken ribs, eh? I’m lucky to be here.”