What Chris Bosh hopes others learn from his freak health scare: ‘Don’t wait to take action’

Chris Bosh has an urgent message for others after he says he woke up covered in blood after blacking out recently.

They say things can change in an instant. After waking up in the middle of a health scare, NBA Hall of Famer Chris Bosh says he’s “lucky to be alive.” Now, he hopes others don’t wait for their own near-death experiences to start truly living.

On Wednesday, the 41-year-old former Miami Heat player revealed he was heading out with his wife when he blacked out and woke up covered in blood.

“So I woke up covered in my own blood. It was crazy, it was fast, it was instant. There was no warning. I didn’t have any time to prepare for it. I was getting ready to go on a date with my wife and the next thing you know I was on the ground,” he said in a video uploaded to Instagram.

While he did not go into detail about what caused the frightening moment or exactly when it occurred — though he shared that he is still recovering and appeared visibly shaken in the video — he focused on how the experience is already pushing him to live differently.

“It was a scary thing, and it came fast, and it made me really have a different outlook on life and how things go, what we do for ourselves, what we do for our family, how we live our lives, and no matter what, make sure you don’t wait,” he said.

“That’s the thing I get from this: don’t wait to take action because it could come fast, it could come quick, and I’m lucky to be alive,” he continued. “Now I’m thinking about how I live my day-to-day life.”

He encouraged viewers to go after the things they truly want and not wait until it’s too late — whether that’s asking for a promotion, starting a business, trying out for a team or finally taking that dream vacation.

“It might be so many different things that people want to do that … that we never do,” he said. “So that’s what I get from all of this. Don’t wait for it.”

Otherwise, he warned, you just may “hit the deck,” like he did. Though he came back, others may not.

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While Bosh has yet to disclose further details about what caused the sudden medical emergency, the former NBA star — who entered the league in 2003 — officially retired in 2019 after a multiyear battle with blood clots. He currently resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife of almost 15 years, Adrienne whom he shares four children.