Jackass Star Bam Margera's Scary Admission About His Close Brush With Death

To usher in the new millennium in grand fashion, MTV introduced viewers to a show in October 2000 that remains as culturally relevant as ever: "Jackass." As the crass title implies, the program is all about a group of longtime friends who have no reservations about putting each other through the wringer. Week in and week out, they'd put each other through a gauntlet of dangerous and crude yet hilarious pranks that audiences couldn't turn away from. To say it became a hit would be an understatement, and the amateur stuntmen behind it all reaped the benefits.

As the likes of Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O have maintained their place in the public eye and kept the legacy of "Jackass" alive, that sentiment doesn't go for the entirety of the original crew. Case in point, Bam Margera, who has lived a roller coaster of a life since the now-iconic MTV series first gained prominence. Both on the show and in his personal life, he's found himself in some terrifying and rather unsavory situations, including some drama among some of his "Jackass" co-stars, like Knoxville. Nevertheless, he's managed to power through and live to tell the tale all these years later.

Even though he's no longer regularly putting his body on the line via "Jackass" media, Bam Margera has revealed that he recently came frighteningly close to death. Here's what happened, as detailed by the man himself.

On January 5, 2023, Bam Margera stopped by his friend Steve-O's "Steve-O's Wild Ride!" podcast to commemorate the end of his conservatorship. However, before he could get to that, he had a scary story from the previous month the share with listeners. "I basically was pronounced dead on Elvis' birthday, December 8," he revealed right out of the gate, explaining that he didn't realize it, but he'd been dealing with an extreme case of COVID-19. He continues, "My body was shutting down, and I went into four seizures, each one lasting 10 to 20 minutes." The fourth was so bad that he nearly bit off his tongue.

As a result of his unintentionally self-inflicted tongue wound, his tongue swelled up and began bleeding. Margera then swallowed the blood, which, in turn, resulted in him ending up with pneumonia to boot. Worse yet, on his way to the hospital, he went into a fifth seizure, and due to his swollen tongue, he couldn't breathe. When he finally came to in the hospital, he thought he'd only been there for a brief stay, but he couldn't have been more wrong. "They were like, 'Dude, you've been here for nearly a week. We tried to take the tube out, but you weren't breathing on your own,'" Margera recalls being told shortly after waking up.

Thankfully, eight days after being admitted to the hospital, Bam Margera made a full recovery and was released. It was a worrisome situation to put it lightly, and news outlets picked up on the story almost immediately. Steve-O then mentions that after hearing about it on the news and seeing Margera on a ventilator, he assumed the worst was right around the corner. "I'm just thinking, 'Oh my God, this is it,'" Steve-O said, joking that if Margera didn't make it through, that would throw a serious wrench into his tour plans — a joke that folks online didn't take kindly to at the time.

Of course, in all seriousness, Steve-O made sure to clarify that Margera's recovery was the top priority. "The important thing is that Bam's not dead," he stated, with Margera chiming in with a laugh to compare his voice after removing the breathing tube to that of Steve-O's trademark raspy voice. He doesn't remember much of what happened to him prior to waking up in the hospital, saying that he pretty much blacked out until he opened his eyes in the hospital bed. It's safe to assume he didn't miss a whole lot throughout his lengthy hospital stay that he thought lasted only a few hours.

As if the past few years haven't shown the fact already, COVID-19 is no joke and is more than capable of killing at a moment's notice. It's good to hear that Bam Margera was able to recover from such a deadly disease.