GAZ Beadle's wife Emma McVey has confessed she feared she wouldn't wake up after having a life-saving operation.
Emma, 30, had open heart surgery earlier this year to fix three holes in her heart and she's spoken out about the terrifying moment she said goodbye to Gaz, 35, and their children Chester, five, and Primrose, three.
Speaking to The Sun, Emma explained: "They came to the hospital to drop me off and Gary had to drive away with the kids crying their eyes out after we said goodbye.
“That was the hardest bit. I had to mentally prepare myself that it could be my last goodbye.
“I knew in surgery I’d be connected to a heart machine that would be keeping me alive while my heart was stopped, and I kept thinking, ‘They’re not going to be able to start my heart again’.
“I thought, ‘I'm going to get put to sleep and I'm not coming back out’.”
After the gruelling operation Emma - who married Geordie Shore star Gaz in 2021 - suffered horrendous pain and admitted she was reluctant to take medication.
She said: "I had a big tube in my neck with lots of wires coming out. I couldn't sit up or move on my side and because the morphine made me sick, I didn't want to press my morphine button so I probably wasn't taking as much medication as I should, which added to the pain."
But Emma faced a further setback during her recovery when she suffered a collapsed lung which caused surgical emphysema.
However she did make a full recovery and after six days in hospital was allowed to return home.
The model and influencer previously took to Instagram to thank the medical staff who performed the surgery.
She wrote: "I came into this month with a healthy heart, I’ll never be able to thank my surgeon, doctors, nurses and everyone else involved. I had 2 small holes, 1 large hole and my triscupid valve repaired.
'They’ve given me a new life to enjoy with my babies and really don’t get the credit they deserve ♥️."
