Written by: Alex Green
Shane MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke is hoping the recently hospitalized musician will be home in time for Christmas.
MacGowan was admitted to the hospital December 2nd and was soon diagnosed with viral encephalitis. Prior to his hospitalization, MacGowan had come down with a case of shingles, which appeared on his forehead and spread to his eye.
Encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain, is always a potential complication when one has contracted shingles, because it’s linked to the central nervous system.
Clarke told the Sunday Independent that she was “absolutely terrified” at the prospect of losing her husband and she went on to say, “You don’t know what is going to happen, do you? You just don’t know.”
MacGowan, who will turn 65 on Christmas Day, has been in poor health for the past few years. He took a fall while leaving the studio back in 2015, which resulted in a fractured pelvis. The injury was so severe that MacGowan began using a wheelchair. He later suffered a hip injury, a broken knee, torn ligaments in the other knee and a subsequent bout with pneumonia that yielded an extensive stay in the hospital. MacGowan has admitted recently that he’s not ambulatory and his public appearances have found him in the aforementioned wheelchair.
