Country star Eric Church opens up for the first time about his terrifying health scare

Country music star Eric Church is opening up about a terrifying health scare last year that required emergency surgery.

Thoracic outlet syndrome occurs when blood vessels or nerves in the space between the collarbone and first rib are compressed, according to the Mayo Clinic. It can lead to blood clots in veins or arteries in the upper area of the body.

"When I would raise my arm, it would pinch it and damage the vein. The clot was where it tried to heal," Church, 41, told Rolling Stone. "But it kept backing up, backing up. And like any clot, when you get enough pressure, it’s gonna blow.”

In June 2017, he was admitted to Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, where he says doctors believed he "was going to die."

Church first noticed a tingling in his hands - a common symptom of thoracic outlet syndrome - last year as his arena tour wound down. “I just associated it with nerves,” he told the publication. “I didn’t think it was anything.”

But while watching the College World Series and texting someone about golf, his left hand stopped "responding like it should" and his arm was "noticeably red and enlarged."

Church Googled his symptoms and believed he had thrombosis of the arm, which is a blood clot inside a blood vessel.

His wife, Katherine, was out of town, so he handed off his two children to the nanny and headed to a hospital in North Carolina, where doctors advised him to get an ultrasound at a location 25 minutes away in Boone. They wrapped up the IV in his arm, and he drove himself.

“I was thinking about my family and kids, and how I wanted to make it back home," he told Rolling Stone. "But I was also thinking about the tour, and what we went through. I looked back and I honestly felt pretty satisfied that I couldn’t have given another thing.”

The ultrasound revealed a blood clot in his chest. Doctors told Church that immediate surgery was needed at Duke University Hospital in Durham. Because the vibrations of a helicopter could dislodge the blood clot, he was put on blood thinners and driven two and a half hours by ambulance.

“They took me into the ICU and I thought, ‘OK, I’m gonna go to bed, get up in the morning and do this thing,’ ” he said. “But when I walk in the room, the surgical team is there and the [doctor’s] in scrubs. He says, ‘We’re gonna go now.’ That was really when it hit me. To them, I was going to die.”

Church was in recovery for three days and doctors removed his top rib one week later. The rest of his summer was spent rehabbing and, in September, he went back on the road.

Today, his nerves haven't quite completely healed, but luckily there's no long-term damage.

“I can still play guitar,” said Church, who has two long white scars on his collar. “And I play golf better than ever.”