Wency Cornejo reveals life-threatening experience during knee procedure: 'I could've died'

Singer-composer Wency Cornejo shared that he almost died during his recent operation. 

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Feb. 14, Cornejo recounted the experience that happened during his arthroscopic knee surgery.

"Ngayon pa lang nagsi-sink in that I could've died the other day," he said. "My anesthesiologist said I stopped breathing while under and he had to pump me with oxygen. Medyo surreal ang feeling."

"Thank you Doc Andro for keeping me alive," he wrote.

Cornejo didn't detail his illness in his post.

Prior to his knee surgery, Cornejo opened up about his battle with a nerve condition. “I had played three shows since I got Bell’s palsy, so I know I can still perform. It’s just a little more difficult,” he shared in a press conference for his March 2020 concert. At the time, he said that he had trouble pronouncing some vowels and consonants. 

According to Mayo Clinic, Bell's palsy "is a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face. Often the weakness is short-term and improves over weeks. The weakness makes half of the face appear to droop. Smiles are one-sided, and the eye on the affected side is hard to close."

Cornejo is best known as the frontman and songwriter of the 80s band AfterImage, known for the hits Habang May Buhay, Next in Line, and Mangarap Ka.

When the band disbanded in the 90s, he then pursued a solo career, during which he received multiple accolades for his album Hanggang and the song Isang Kinabukasan.