Craig Charles rushed to hospital after suffering ‘sudden pains’ live on air on BBC radio

Craig Charles was rushed to hospital after falling ill live on air during his BBC Radio 6 music slot.

The former Coronation Street actor, 58, experienced shooting pains up his shoulder and neck and was unable to hold a pen during his show. Speaking on the radio on Friday, Craig detailed the scary ordeal to listeners as he revealed he pushed through the illness to finish his show.

Craig recounted the incident: “My hands couldn’t grip the pen and my fingers were tingling. I had a pain in the right side of me shoulder going up my neck and into the back of my head.”

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He added: “The producer asked: ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘Not really, but we’ll get through the show.”

Craig’s team suggested he should go to his hospital before his wife Jackie picked him up and insisted they go to A&E at Wythenshawe Hospital. The Red Dwarf actor spent 24 hours in hospital undergoing various scans and tests, and underwent an ECG to check for heart problems before getting the all clear.

“They gave me an instant ECG to make sure that my heart was fine and all that,” Craig added. The presenter added he spent five hours in the waiting room before being seen, but praised the “understaffed” facility for their “brilliant” care.

“This is no disrespect or no criticism of Wythenshawe Hospital they were brilliant, they were professional, they were caring, they were dedicated,” he said.

“It’s just they’re understaffed and they’re overworked so they called me in at sort of quarter to ten at night and said you’ll have to have a CT scan.”

Craig said the CT scan came back all clear with “nothing wrong with the brain and the blood flows going quite nicely from my neck up into my head so I’m fine”.

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He was asked to stay for an MRI scan so he had to stay in overnight – but the hospital had no spare beds.

“So we spent the night in the A&E in the triage department, me and Jackie on this little single hospital trolley got about an hour’s kip until some guy came in screaming because he’d dislocated his shoulder,” he said.

Craig explained the doctors still don’t know what’s wrong with him but reassured listeners he’s “not dying yet”.

“So nearly 24 hours in the hospital and they still don’t know what’s wrong with me but at least I’m not dying yet,” he said.

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