Rick Springfield details effects of brain injury from 25 years ago
Rick Springfield, 75, reveals new details on the brain injury he suffered more than two decades ago.
During a “today” segment on Thursday, the Grammy Award winner said that he had recently learned that he had had lasting damage from a bad fall during a Las Vegas concert that she played 25 years ago.
“I was showing the show in Vegas, and I actually fell at 25 feet on a steel scene,” said Springfield on “Today” during his first camera interview since his announcement.
During a mid-term cascade, Springfield had to be suspended from a bundle on a harness system nourished with gravity, but “it was not attached,” revealed the singer. “I slammed (on the stage), then the beam struck me on my head, then my head again struck the (scene).”
At the time, doctors thought he had broken his wrist. “They checked me and it seemed good,” he recalls. But following a recent complete MRI scan, he learned that he had undergone a brain injury all these years ago.
He admitted feeling uncomfortable before the scan, worried doctors would discover something serious. “It’s a very frightening thing, because this thing could arise that still worries you, you know?”
Although they have found brain damage and scars, Springfield says he is watched and “we look at him.”
In the end, the singer said it was worth knowing these details about his health despite his anxiety in advance. His father was the kind of person who avoided investigating his health, and Springfield was reluctant to repeat history, he told people in March.
“My father died of not wanting to know,” said Springfield. “He thought he had stomach cancer for years and never had him checked. When he finally collapsed at home, they discovered that it was an ulcer that broke out, and he died of blood loss. It could have been repaired if he had made him checked.”
He continued: “It was a giant message for me: if you want to live for a long time, you have to be prepared for bad news.
On “Today”, Springfield, a grandfather soon, said that the injury had not affected it much, and he is preparing for a tour that begins this month.
