Shania Twain says her frightening battle with pneumonia and COVID-19 felt almost like something out of a movie.
The country singer revealed to The Mirror that she had to be “air evacuated” from where she was staying in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, to the hospital, as she was “progressively getting worse” during the peak of the pandemic.
And her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, was frantic with stress. “My husband was freaking out, to be honest,” said Twain, 57. “He was really panicking because he was the one having to pull it all together.”
Thiébaud was juggling trying to find a bed at the nearby hospital for Twain to claim before coordinating the airlift — all while keeping an eye on her dropping vitals.
“He spent hours and hours every day on the phone,” she said. “It was just a real nightmare for him.”
Once a hospital bed was secured, Twain was airlifted from the Lake Geneva residence. It was an almost other-worldly experience, she said: “It was like science fiction; I felt like I was going to another planet or something. It all kind of happened in slow motion.”
Her hospital stay was a different story. She was put in isolation and treated with plasma therapy, according to The Mirror.
“It took several days to start building up any antibodies at all, so it was a very dangerous time and very scary,” Twain said.
The singer added that she is “so grateful” to have “made it through” the scary health battle, and she knows she owes a great deal to her husband for taking care of her.
“I thought, ‘Wow, if I was living alone in a more isolated scenario, I don’t know what would have happened,’ “ Twain told the outlet. “My heart goes out to people who don’t have that support to help them get the right care.”
Her serious battle with COVID and pneumonia wasn’t the first time the country singer has faced a health scare.
Twain previously spent more than seven years unable to project vocally, worried she’d never sing again, before doctors diagnosed her with Lyme disease from a tick bite in 2004.
The disease damaged the nerves in her vocal cords, doctors discovered.
In 2018, Twain underwent throat surgery to strengthen the weakened nerves. But between the operation, physical therapy and relearning how to sing, the “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” singer has fully bounced back.
“I may not be able to [sing] forever,” she told PEOPLE for her December cover story, “but right now I’m just enjoying where I am.”
