Lamar Odom’s 2015 coma is still a blur — and the former NBA player still doesn’t know how one drink led to his hospitalization.
“I do remember, but I don’t really remember because I was in a coma,” Odom, 45, said of his near-death experience during the Monday, January 20, episode of Australia’s The Kyle & Jackie O Show.
The former Los Angeles Lakers star recalled heading to that “damn brothel” in Nevada in October 2015 without drugs on his person.
“I remember being upset that I didn’t have any cocaine to take to the brothel,” Odom said, noting that he had “just signed the divorce papers” after his split from Khloé Kardashian so he planned to “just go all the way in” that night at the brothel. (Kardashian, 40, initially filed for divorce in December 2013 after four years of marriage.)
Once he arrived at the location, Odom remembered “putting down a certain amount on my credit card to tell them, like, ‘You know, let’s keep this a secret.’”
After that, the athlete recalled “having a drink and then waking up three days later with it all over the news.”
Cohost Kyle Sandilands was surprised by Odom’s recount of the evening, asking, “So, there were no drugs?”
“I don’t know what they were able to slip into my drink,” Odom replied, confirming that he doesn’t remember taking any drugs on his own, but when he came out of the coma, he was told there were in fact drugs in his system that night.
He continued: “When I woke up, I couldn’t walk or talk. It took some months of rehabilitation and a lot of prayers, a lot of determination.”
Odom also had Kardashian by his side when he woke up. While the pair had just signed their divorce paperwork when Odom nearly died, it wasn’t finalized. The Kardashians star withdrew the filing so she could make medical decisions on his behalf.
“She was the first thing I saw. She said, ‘Hi, Mookah.’ ‘Mookah’ is a name my mother used to call me. She said it to let me know I wasn’t dead,” Odom exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2017, recalling the moment he woke up to Kardashian by his bedside. “She played a major role in me getting my memory back. She would bring pictures of my mother and my grandmother. I kept thinking, Am I paralyzed forever? Am I mute forever? It was scary s—. Faith got me through.”
While he and Kardashian eventually divorced in December 2016, Odom learned a lot during his recovery.
The retired basketball player said on Monday that he had “12 strokes and six heart attacks when I was underneath, seeing all black,” which ultimately led to his healthier lifestyle choices.
“You have nothing to do after you’ve beaten death,” Odom continued, noting on the podcast that since his brush with death he has been “drug-free.”
He shared that his “mission” after surviving the overdose is to “help people who have the same problem, who couldn’t help themselves” to better understand addiction.
When it comes to his own life, Odom said he’s “content” and “happy” to be living with his children.
Odom’s eldest child, son Jayden, died at 6 months old from sudden infant death syndrome. He welcomed Jayden with then-girlfriend Liza Morales in December 2005. The former couple also share daughter Destiny, 26, and son Lamar Jr., 23.
“[I’m] seeing things differently and submitting to fatherhood,” he concluded.
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