Rapper Krayzie Bone Says 'Outlook Was Grim' When He Was Hospitalized: 'They Didn’t Know If I Was Going to Make It'

The Bone Thugs-N-Harmony rapper went to the ER after coughing up blood but "woke up 10 days later" — and learned that doctors thought he would die

Rapper Krayzie Bone is looking back on his sudden hospitalization in September, revealing that he didn’t know how serious his condition was until “I woke up 10 days later.”

The Bone Thugs-N-Harmony star, whose real name is Anthony Henderson, spoke to Spin about his hospitalization, which began with a trip to the emergency room when he developed a persistent cough.

“I was up late playing Xbox one night and I coughed and something came up that didn’t feel like the usual phlegm,” said Krayzie Bone, 50. “When I spit it out, it was nothing but blood.”

Although it initially cleared up, the blood returned, so he headed to the emergency room at the insistence of his wife.

“They gave me little bags that I was coughing the blood up in. By the time they came to take me to a room, I had used three of those bags,” he tells Spin.

Doctors told him in advance that they “had to put me under to see what was going on,” Krayzie Bone recalled. He texted his bandmates that he might not make their scheduled show in Las Vegas.

He figured he would be out of the hospital soon enough. But, he says, “I woke up 10 days later.”

An artery in his lung had ruptured, and doctors were unable to stop the bleeding.

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“After the second day, the bleeding wouldn’t stop and the doctor started to panic,” he told Spin. “That’s when they told my wife they might want to get the family down here.”

“They said they didn’t know if I was going to make it out of there,” he shared.

The bleeding eventually stopped on the fourth day, with doctors keeping Krayzie Bone sedated and intubated for another six days.

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“When I woke up, they told me everything that happened. I had no idea I’d been there for 10 days,” he said.

When he came to, his groupmates from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony had come to the hospital  — along with his family, including his father and brother who had flown in from Cleveland, leaving him to wonder, “Damn, why is everybody so uptight? What the hell is going on?” 

He continued, telling Spin, “The doctors in the ICU, I don’t know if it’s what they see every day, but their outlook was grim. They were like, ‘He might not make it out of here. The lung function on the left side is completely dead. He will need a lung transplant.’”

But doctors ultimately decided against the procedure, since Krayzie Bone hit the gym consistently — and performed regularly with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. They decided his lungs were strong enough on their own, and opted to put him on preventative medication to avoid his arteries rupturing again.

The rapper told Spin that he now has mycetoma, which the Cleveland Clinic defines as a “fungal ball” that can get bigger and block the sinuses, and it may be related to his sarcoidosis, as the American Journal of Roentgenology has said that “Mycetoma formation is a recognized complication of sarcoidosis, with a fungus ball developing.”

"Tha Crossroads" performer told Spin that although it’s in remission, “the damage [sarcoidosis] did to my lungs is irreversible.”

The Mayo Clinic defines sarcoidosis as “the growth of inflammatory cells” which are known as granulomas, and most often affects the lungs.

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Krayzie Bone said he’s now working to regain the 25 lbs. he lost in the hospital with the help of a personal trainer and physical therapy. He said the experience of thinking he was going in for a quick checkup — and coming out 10 days later — has changed his outlook on life.

“Just seeing how fast everything could change is definitely eye-opening. I don’t take anything for granted,” he tells Spin.

“Cherish all the loved ones you have.”

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