987 DJ Avery Aloysius Yeo Reveals He Nearly Died After Routine Shoulder Surgery Complication

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For a moment, we thought 987 jock Avery Aloysius Yeo was suddenly hospitalised for something serious.

Can you blame us? The 30-year-old posted a picture of himself in a hospital be and all tubed up on Wednesday (Oct 22).

Fret not, the picture was taken a year ago, though his caption is no less chilling.

“It’s been a year since I could’ve died!” Avery wrote.

According to Avery, he had undergone shoulder surgery, something that had bugged him for years. But he ended up fighting for his life when a post-surgery complication had him covered in blood, while coughing out more blood as he struggled to breathe.

“I was in and out of consciousness and everything was happening so quickly, but I won’t ever forget the first words out of my mouth to the surgeon: “Am I dying?” wrote Avery.

He then woke up in the ICU and was told that he had suffered from pulmonary edema due to trauma in his throat during the procedure, which caused blood to flow back into his lungs.

Pulmonary edema is where excessive fluid accumulates in the tissue or air spaces of the lungs, leading to shortness of breath that can progress to respiratory failure.

Yikes!

“I was low on oxygen for days after and had issues laughing, breathing, and even talking,” he wrote on IG.

In an interview with 8days.sg, Avery says the incident came as a shock to him, as he only found out how serious it was after consulting doctors outside the hospital.

“The whole situation seemed like it was one of those “It won’t happen to me” sort of things. But I’m just glad it wasn’t something that had any permanent impact on my health,” he says.

Avery declined to name the hospital for this interview, but did share that his family was furious when they found out he had ended up in the ICU for his shoulder surgery.

So, who did Avery first call when he regained consciousness?

Not his mum (who took the IG picture, by the way), but his 987 radio partner, Germaine Tan.

Avery and Germaine host The Down Low on 987 from 8pm to 12 midnight.

He clarifies with us that his family had already been informed by the hospital that he was in the ICU, but not Germaine.

“She had given me missed calls because I wasn’t able to update her. And it was just an instinct to call her because I knew that no matter what, she would know what to tell me to make me feel better,” he said.

Despite not naming the hospital, he hinted on IG that he had tried pursuing the matter with the hospital, but eventually had to let it go.

“I pretty much gave up fighting that battle because of many factors (money mainly), and I wanted to focus on what mattered, my friends and family were there for me, that’s what mattered,” Avery wrote.

He later says in the post that the memory of his near-death incident still haunts him.

When 8days.sg asked what prompted him to share his experience only a year later, he says he sees it more as a celebratory thing.

“Acknowledging how crazy that I went for a shoulder surgery, but ended up fighting a lung issue instead. A year later, and I am still telling people this wild story,” he replies.

Well, it looks like that dark period is behind him and tells 8days.sg that he has since made a full recovery.

In September this year, Avery proudly told this writer that he won gold at a Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) competition in Kuala Lumpur.

According to him, he had gone for the shoulder surgery because of the BJJ competition.

“I wanted to make sure I was able to compete and bring home that gold. So, it is an incredibly proud moment, no doubt. It is also another testament to fighting all the battles no one really talks about, be it physically, emotionally or even mentally,” he says.

Photos: averyaloysius/IG

Catch Avery in The Down Low Challenge on mewatch or in the video below: