Former model Penny Lancaster shared a terrifying moment when she feared for her life following emergency surgery. This procedure was necessary due to a slipped disc right before her marriage to rock legend Sir Rod Stewart.
During a 2006 visit to New York, Penny collapsed in severe pain. A subsequent MRI in London revealed that the slipped disc was alarmingly close to damaging several nerves.
Speaking in her new book Someone Like Me, the 54-year-old explained what she went through on the operating table as she thought she lay there dying.
She said: “When I shut my eyes, a bright white light appeared. I’m dying, I concluded. This is the white tunnel of light that everyone talks about.
“Unbelievable, the thoughts racing through your mind when you’re hallucinating,” Penny recalled, uneasy over the notion that her last moments might see her found dead with a look of fear.
“So I laid myself out serenely, clasped my hands across my chest and closed my eyes. When I woke, I was surprised I was still alive.”
Penny attributes her hallucinations to the morphine administered by the medical team, noting that the doctor neglected to warn her of its potential side effects.
She said: “After many reassurances from the surgeon that he was the man for the job, no one had explained to me how the morphine might make me feel.
“Right after waking up from surgery, I had an intense reaction; I couldn’t stop vomiting. Whenever I lay down, the room’s flowers and the TV were spinning out of control,” she explained.
Penny initially considered delaying the surgery because of her impending wedding, but the doctor convinced her that postponing it could leave her “walking down the aisle with leg braces and a colostomy bag”.
The loved-up pair went on to marry on June 16, 2007 in Portofino, Italy. The couple have two sons – Alastair and Aiden – but Sir Rod has six more children from previous relationships.
It comes after Penny shared how colleagues on Loose Women helped her as she fought a health battle during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chatting to Chris Evans on his Virgin Radio show, Penny revealed she has maintained a close relationship with some of the panellists she met during her time on the show.
She said her colleagues pulled through for her as she battled with what she thought was a mental health issue during lockdown.
Penny said: “One of the other major things was when they saved my life when I thought I was going through depression in the middle of lockdown, which I think a lot of people were suffering from.
“But in fact it was the menopause and it was my Loose Women girls that went ‘darling Penny, this is not depression. This is your hormones.’ So, they’ve been with me on many a journey and I’m so grateful for them.”
