Sir Alex Ferguson's brain haemorrhage, heartbreaking memory fear and '20 per cent' mortality - The Mirror

The legendary Manchester United manager suffered the near-death experience in 2018 and has opened up the ordeal in a new documentary

Sir Alex Ferguson was given a 20 percent chance of survival by medics after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

The revelation of how close Ferguson came to losing his life is made in a new film, Never Give In, about the life of the legendary former Manchester United boss.

In the film, Ferguson reveals that five people were admitted to Salford Royal Hospital with brain haemorrhages on the same day, with only two of them surviving.

Ferguson, 79, talks candidly about his near-death experience in the film and opens up, admitting he feared dying after he collapsed at home in May 2018.

“I remember falling, after that I don't remember a thing,” said Ferguson. “I just suddenly stopped. I was in no man's land.

“That day there were five brain haemorrhages and three died. Only two survived, I was one of them. So you know you're lucky.

“It was beautiful weather, I always remember that.

“You're looking out of the hospital window and you're saying 'I wonder how many more sunny days I'm ever going to see again?' I found that difficult.

“Then I lost my voice, I just couldn't get a word out. That was terrifying, absolutely terrifying.

“Everything was going through my mind – 'is my memory going to be back and am I ever going to speak again?'

“I would have hated to have lost my memory. It would have been a terrible burden on the family, if I'm sitting in the house and I don't know who I am.

“Then this speech therapist came and started working on me, writing down all the members of your family, all the members of your football team, then asked me questions about animals, fish, birds.

“Eventually, after 10 days, my voice came back. I realised then, having gone through all that, my memory was fine.”

Consultant neurosurgeon Joshi George said: “I remember estimating his mortality at that point in time at 80 per cent. As in, there was an 80 per cent chance he would not survive.”

Reflecting on the first time he saw the film, directed by his son Jason and released in May, Ferguson said: “I was nearly crying at various parts of the film, I felt really emotional. It's a fantastic piece of work.”