Richard Bacon pays sweet tribute to wife Rebecca after coma: 'My life would be worse without her'

Richard Bacon has posted a touching tribute to his wife for being by his side during his recent hospitalisation, saying his life would be worse without her.

Bacon, 42, is recovering from a mystery lung condition which left him in a coma and close to death.

The TV presenter posted a picture of himself holding Rebecca’s hand as he thanked his wife for her support in the wake of the “worry” he caused.

“Last full day in hospital,” he tweeted. “Every facet of my life would be worse without Rebecca in it. How will I ever thank her?

“I was in a coma for nine or ten nights (I just learned). That’s a lot of staring at your husband and his pipes. And a lot of worry.”

Bacon was rushed to Lewisham hospital earlier this month after landing in the UK from the US with what doctors first diagnosed as double pneumonia – an inflammation of the lungs which can be caused by a virus or bacteria.

Within days he was put into a medically induced coma and fitted with a tracheostomy, with his family left fearing for his life.

He returned to Twitter earlier this week, telling fans he feared for his life after being rushed to ICU in the middle of the night.

“So I did 6 days straight in a coma,” he tweeted in since deleted posts. “Been here another 4 since. It’s an yet unidentified double chest infection. I nearly died. At one point, as I was as run down a hallway to ICU at midnight, with a massive needle jammed in my chest (bit like Pulp Fiction) I thought, this is it.

“How’s is this going to affect my kids’ lives? Who’s going to sit my poor dad down and say ‘I’m sorry, we did everything we could’.”

He praised the NHS for keeping him alive, joking he will “probably have pneumonia” by the time the service reaches its 100th birthday.

“But then I didn’t die,” he continued. “And I didn’t die because I’m on the NHS. VivaTheNHS. See you for your 100th. By which time I probably will have pneumonia.

“This is how good Lewisham Hospital is. I walked in off the street simply complaining of being short of breath. With 90 minutes they had placed me into a life saving six day coma. #VivaTheNHS.”