Amy Grant is reflecting on her health after undergoing open-heart surgery and suffering a brain injury following a bike accident, both incidents within the past four years.
The “Baby, Baby” singer, 63, said her recent health concerns have “changed the way I look at life.”
Grant has joined a campaign for American Heart Association next His surgery in 2020,
“I always saw myself living a good life in my nineties. My great-grandmother lived to be 94 years old. She was very sharp minded,” he said told people In an interview published on Monday. “To realize that something could happen that you never saw coming, and it could be over… everything becomes more valuable.”
Grant shared that before she was diagnosed with heart problems, she “always saw herself living well into her nineties. My great-grandmother lived to be 94 years old. She was sharp in mind.”
Grant continued, “To realize that something could happen that you never saw coming, and it could be over… everything became more precious.”
grammy winner’s heart problem She was diagnosed after a doctor suggested she get tested when her husband, singer Vince Gill, 67, was having trouble breathing.
“After giving Vince the ‘big’ news, ‘You’re so fat and worthless’ – and Vince said, ‘Tell me something I don’t know!’ – The doctor looked at me and said, ‘I want to see you,'” Grant explained.
Additional testing revealed that the “Every Heartbeat” singer had PAPVR (partial anomalous pulmonary venous return), a rare defect in which some of the blood vessels in the lungs connect to the wrong place in the heart. Having this condition means the heart has to work longer, and it can lead to lung infections, trouble breathing, and other serious problems. According to the Mayo Clinic,
Grant said he had “a ticking time bomb in my chest.”
“I learned to just move on because that’s what women do,” she said before learning her diagnosis. “I was one of those women who said, ‘I’m fine.’ I’m fine. I’m the Energizer bunny,’ and then I’m not ready to die.
Grant started swimming regularly his open-heart surgery And now says she is “in the best shape I’ve been in in a long time, maybe 20 years.”
But his heart condition hasn’t been his only health issue.
In July 2022, Grant hit a pothole while riding her bike in Nashville brain injury Despite wearing a helmet. Due to this incident, he continued to have memory problems for several months.
“I would just say, ‘What if I never come back?’ Because my processing was so slow, I could be in the room with people, but I couldn’t come back,” she shared.
While the singer’s memory has improved, she “writes everything on the calendar.”
However, she is using humor to lighten the situation.
“But whatever memory problems I have, I think they’re age-appropriate. I am about to turn 64. So I’m just saying, ‘I’m at the right time,'” Grant shared.
Since she has health issues, she is refocusing her priorities.
“I’m finding a different balance between music and family and trying to be more involved in it as my adult children will allow,” she said.
Grant has three children from her first marriage to musician Gary Chapman. He has a biological daughter with Gill, 23-year-old Corinna Grant Gill, whom he married in 2000.
