Acting legend Vanessa Redgrave has described how she feels lucky to
be alive after revealing she suffered a near-fatal heart attack earlier
this year.
In a new interview, the 78-year-old said how she was
alone in her west London flat in April when it happened and she mustered
"just enough breath and determination" to call her son Carlo Nero,
whose father is
her partner Franco Nero.
She was only able to leave a message on his phone but he got it just in time for him to call an ambulance which blue-lighted her to hospital where she underwent surgery.
She said she only had hazy memories of a doctor in the ambulance.
She said: "Called Sarah, I later found out. I was aware of her pushing me back in the ambulance, speaking very quickly, and it all being a huge hurry.
"It was the speed and determination of first Carlo and then Dr Sarah and then the surgeons at Hammersmith Hospital which saved my life."
Surgeons found that one artery was "an absolute write-off " but she has since responded well after tests.
However after the attack doctors told her she was suffering from emphysema.
"My lungs are shattered, about 30 per cent capacity if I don't smoke.
"Which of course I don't any more, though I was horrified to learn from my doctor that there are people with this diagnosis who still do."
Talking about how the heart attack affected her, she added to the Evening Standard: "You'd have thought I'd have realised how much I love my family before the heart attack.