Shania Twain reflects on her ‘threatening’ battle with Covid pneumonia that nearly took her life

Shania Twain has shared her terrifying experience with covid pneumonia, which got so bad that she had to be airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

The 57-year-old Queen of Country Pop has detailed her ‘threatening’ battle with the virus, revealing that it nearly took her life.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, she said: “I’m asthmatic anyway, and then I had a really bad bout with Covid, and it was very threatening.”

“I had to be airlifted by a special team because no one else would take me to the hospital, because you can’t just pick up a Covid patient and take them to a hospital.”

It soon turned into Covid pneumonia, and Shania said: ‘Every day my lungs were filled with inflammation. Every day.’

Terrifying: Shania Twain has shared her very terrifying experience with covid pneumonia, which got so bad that she had to be airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

Horrible: Queen of country pop, 57, detailed her 'threatening' battle with the virus, revealing it almost took her life

Horrible: Queen of country pop, 57, detailed her ‘threatening’ battle with the virus, revealing it almost took her life

She added: “Within 12 days, I was practically dying.”

She explained: ‘Luckily, I had plasma therapy and it worked. On the fourth day, with plasma therapy, he had 0000.1 antibodies. I had no antibodies.

‘I wasn’t fighting it. My antibodies were not building up and my lungs were becoming more and more swollen.

Shania said she had to wait for the plasma therapy “hopefully to kick in,” not knowing if it would work or not.

Recalling the difficult time, he said: ‘That’s the sad thing… I think the staff around me were really, really good.

‘They didn’t tell me how many more days of plasma therapy he couldn’t respond to before he was now on a ventilator. On my way out You know?’

Fortunately, Shania recovered and met with a minister who reminded her of the importance of breathing, which inspired her new music.

She described writing a song about: “all the things you can do with air that we take for granted, all the things you can celebrate, like blowing bubbles and blowing up balloons and throwing your hands in the air.”

The song, titled Inhale/Exhale Air, will be on her upcoming sixth studio album, Queen Of Me, which is due for release on February 3.

“It’s a song of gratitude and appreciation,” she says. “It inspired me that I still had air in my lungs.”

Shania fell ill during the height of the pandemic, struggling to breathe, by which time her husband Frédéric Thiébaud, 53, arranged for an airlift from their home on Lake Geneva, Switzerland.

Speaking to The Mirror previously, she said: “It was progressively worse. My vital signs were getting worse… and eventually I had to evacuate air.’

Hitmaker That Don’t Impress Me Much described the helicopter ride as “going to another planet”.

Health problems: 'It was getting progressively worse.  My vital signs were getting worse... and I ended up having to airlift myself,' she shared, adding that her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, 53, arranged for airlift from their home on Lake Geneva, Switzerland (pictured in 2020 )

Health problems: ‘It was getting progressively worse. My vital signs were getting worse… and I eventually had to airlift myself out,’ she shared, adding that her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, 53, arranged for airlift from their home on Lake Geneva, Switzerland (pictured). of 2020)

‘It was like science fiction, I felt like I was going to another planet or something. Everything happened in slow motion,” she said.

Twain revealed that her husband was “freaked out” and desperately trying to find her a free hospital bed, which was very limited during that time.

“I would spend hours and hours every day on the phone, trying to coordinate an air evacuation, trying to line up a bed since there wasn’t one, checking my vital signs. It was a real nightmare for him,” she explained.

After arriving at the hospital, the singer was placed in isolation and later treated with plasma therapy.

“It took several days to start developing antibodies, so it was a very dangerous and scary time,” she recalled, adding: “I made it and I’m so grateful.”

A nightmare: 'I was spending hours and hours every day on the phone, trying to coordinate an air evacuation, trying to get a bed lined up since there wasn't one, checking my vital signs.  It was a real nightmare for him

A nightmare: ‘I was spending hours and hours every day on the phone, trying to coordinate an air evacuation, trying to get a bed lined up since there wasn’t one, checking my vital signs. It was a real nightmare for him,” she explained (pictured in 2021).

She also expressed her gratitude for her husband: ‘I thought, ‘Wow, if I was living alone in a more isolated setting, I don’t know what would have happened.’ My heart goes out to people who don’t have that support to help them get the right care.’

Shania and Thiébaud tied the knot on 1-1-11 after shocking the world with their ‘husband swapping’ romance.

Shania’s marriage to her first husband, Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, ended after 14 years in 2008 after she discovered his affair with his long-time secretary and best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud.

In a rare partner exchange, Twain married Thiébaud’s ex-husband Frederic in 2011, and they are still going strong.

Better now: After arriving at the hospital, the singer was isolated and treated with plasma therapy until she finally got better (pictured in 2021)

Better now: After arriving at the hospital, the singer was isolated and treated with plasma therapy until she finally got better (pictured in 2021)

Elsewhere in the interview, she also touched on the horrific sexual abuse she experienced as a child at the hands of her stepfather Jerry Twain.

‘When I was fondled as a child, it made me withdraw from wanting to grow up and become a woman. She hated my body,’ she said.

That’s why she decided to face her feelings and pose nude in the artwork for her new album: ‘I went into the most awkward scenario I could think of, which was a naked photo shoot. And that’s what I did. I just faced it head on.

“It’s probably something I should have done much earlier in my life, but I feel like I’ve made a turn, a very important one. It’s about self-empowerment and taking charge of your fears.’

New tunes: Her upcoming sixth studio album, Queen Of Me, due for release on February 3, will include a song titled Inhale/Exhale Air about the health ordeal.

New tunes: Her upcoming sixth studio album, Queen Of Me, due for release on February 3, will include a song titled Inhale/Exhale Air about the health ordeal.