Jason Spacemen Almost Dies

[Sloth]

Spiritualized main man Jason Pierce is recovering at home after a three-week stay at a London Hospital. During the course of his treatment he has been in intensive care and has had to be revived twice.

His wife, Juliette, wrote a message on Spiritualized's website saying: "after nearly dying twice in the last two and a half weeks, Jason has ... made an alarming and brilliant recovery and is due home today. He is still fragile and really weak, weighing in at maybe 8 stone [about 112 pounds]...but love and happiness are on his side."

According to Pierce's manager, "Jason contracted advanced periorbital cellulitis with bilateral pneumonia, with rapid deterioration [that] required intensive care...for type 1 respiratory failure. It was, at best, touch-and-go for some time. The medical team at the Royal London Hospital twice revived him during the course of his intensive treatment."

Periorbital cellulitis is an infection of the soft tissue around the eye. It's usually caused by an infection that has spread from the membrane covering the eye - pink eye, for example - or from the nose and throat. That, coupled with bilateral pneumonia (pneumonia in both lungs), sent Pierce into respiratory failure.

During the course of his career, many of Pierce's lyrics have dealt with thoughts of his own mortality, coupled with admissions of drug and alcohol abuse. At the time of his hospitalisation he was working on a new Spiritualized album. The songs for that album reportedly stay in that vein, but according to Pierce's wife they also seemed to predict his impending illness. She wrote on the website: "He just mentioned how mad it is that his record is written almost like he was ill before." The album is tentatively due for a release early next year.

[mccutcheon]

damn. well at least he has gotten over Kate.