Jack White was in a coma twice: his wife saved his life

Hit producer Jack White (84) had to get dramatic weeks and months. His life hung on the silk thread twice, he was in the intensive care unit twice, he was in a coma twice, and twice made him serious pneumonia. Now the music mogul speaks in detail about the difficult time in an interview with the magazine “Bunte” – and thanks above all to his wife Rafaella Nußbaum (40): “I would have died without my wife.”

Shortly before Christmas, Horst Nussbaum, according to his bourgeois name, suffered the first stroke of fate. He drove to his office again on the snowy December day. With his wet shoes, he slipped and fell on the parquet floor, reports White: “With the back of my head, I was probably banging against the desk and was passed out on the floor. I fell into a coma.” His wife saved him. Her instinct told her that something was wrong, which is why she wanted to reach him first and then hurried to help.

“Then I saw my husband lying down,” said the 40-year-old, “and screamed like never before in my life.” The recalled rescue workers should have stabilized and intubated white so that they could remove it. Only after weeks in the intensive care unit did he wake up again. “It was so important that his brain was not under -supplied so that no damage remained. I wore so much about him and was terrible fear for Jack,” reports Rafaella about the incident.

Just five weeks later, a no less difficult health setback followed. His housekeeper found him in bed with a stroke. He himself didn’t notice anything at all: “I was back in a coma and only grew up in the intensive care unit four weeks later. It was just terrible – totally wired, this terrible bed from which you don’t come out, glowing light, the ongoing beep.”

The crazy thing is, according to White, that his head remained completely healthy despite these incidents. He also recovered physically. “I’m really fine. I have not kept any damage. I am almost the old Jack. I can go, stand, speak.” He would have felt only a slight dizziness after getting up two days ago that had affected a little. Otherwise, he was just grateful to finally be able to be back home with his wife and two little children: “In my own bed.”

He had never been afraid of dying. Nevertheless, Jack White is trying to live healthier in the future: “I am actually very fit for my age. Before December, I was on my hortarium three times a week. I had a balanced diet. I never smoked and only drunk moderately red wine.” However, he would have felt stress and worked a lot for his life. In the future, the 84-year-old is now also banishing sugar from his diet.

Born in Cologne, the Cologne first hit a career as a football professional in the early 1960s and played for Viktoria Cologne, Tennis Borussia Berlin and the Dutch top team PSV Eindhoven. At that time he already released his first records under his pseudonym Jack White, later he concentrated on composing and producing. Among other things, the megahits such as “Football is our life” from DFB-Elf, “Looking for Freedom” by David Hasselhoff, “Beautiful Maid” by Tony Marshall or “A new love is like a new life” by Jürgen Marcus.

He also worked with stars such as Roland Kaiser, Iron Sheer, Hansi Hinterseer, Roberto Blanco, Engelbert or Tony Christie. White received more than 400 gold and platinum awards. He has been married to the Rafaella 44 years younger since 2015. The two have son Maximilian Noah (6) and daughter Angelina Melody (1). White has three other children from his three previous marriages.