Ralph Siegel (80) has left the intensive care unit. Three days after being transferred to the regular ward, the composer has spoken out for the first time since his severe pneumonia. "Relatively speaking, I'm doing well. When you're in the hospital, that's just how it is. Otherwise, you wouldn't be admitted at all", he told the "Bild" newspaper.
Siegel was in an induced coma for 18 days. What happened during that time, he only knows secondhand. "My beloved wife Laura told me that I was completely unresponsive for weeks. I didn't experience any of that", he reported to the paper.
"One day later and I would have been dead"
This was already the third time he narrowly escaped death. This time it was particularly close, his doctor explained to him. "If I had stayed in Spain one more day or been admitted to some clinic there, I wouldn't be alive today. One day later and I would have been dead", said Siegel. The physician had "saved him once again."
In recent weeks, the ESC legend has lost a lot of strength and is currently unable to stand up. However, Siegel also attributes his condition to his lifestyle before the hospital stay: "For the past three years, except for a few appointments and my birthday, I basically just lay in bed or on the couch. I underestimated how little I moved and what that does to the body."
Induced coma due to pneumonia
It became known in early July that Siegel had been placed in an induced coma at a Munich clinic due to pneumonia. On July 17, his wife Laura Siegel confirmed (43) that the 80-year-old was awake and responsive again: "The whole family is infinitely grateful and relieved that he has made it through the first major step."
Health-wise, the composer, who has written more than 2,000 songs and was responsible for the ESC winning title "Ein bisschen Frieden", among others, has been through quite a lot anyway. In previous years, he had been seriously ill several times, including cancer, plus the painful nerve disease polyneuropathy.
