BRITAIN: British rocker Ozzy Osbourne has fractured eight ribs and a vertebra in his neck in a bike crash on his English country estate. Doctors said yesterday he was comfortable and stable in hospital.
Osbourne (55), notorious for biting the head off a bat in one of his stage concerts, underwent emergency surgery at the Wexham Park Hospital overnight after the crash on an all-terrain bike at his estate in Buckinghamshire.
"Mr Ozzy Osbourne was brought in yesterday following an accident at home," consultant Mr Dick Jack told reporters outside the hospital. "He had a fractured left collarbone, he had some damage to the blood vessel that lies underneath it, he had eight fractured ribs on the left side and in addition to that he has a small, entirely stable fracture of one of the vertebrae in his neck."
The metal rocker was injured while riding a quad bike during a day off from promoting his new single, Changes, a duet with his daughter Kelly.
His wife Sharon flew from Los Angeles to London when she heard the news and arrived at London's Heathrow airport distressed.
"I've not heard how he is since last night," she said. "I haven't managed to speak to him on the phone and I am going straight to hospital to see him. I heard about the accident from my husband's security guard. Apparently he was on his quad bike when he hit something and fell and the bike landed on top of him."
Ozzy, born in Birmingham, first shot to fame in the 1970s as lead singer of the ground-breaking heavy metal band Black Sabbath. His viciously angry lyrics, gruesome stage stunts and disturbing images of evil earned the band cult status. Osbourne launched a solo career and hit the headlines when he bit the bat's head off at a concert in Des Moines, Iowa. He has since said he thought it was a toy.
His popularity has reached new heights in recent years with the success of his reality TV series The Osbournes, in which he stars with his wife Sharon and two of their children.
Publicist Ms Cindy Guagenti said in a brief statement in Los Angeles that Osbourne had undergone emergency surgery to lift the collarbone which was interrupting blood flow to his arm, as well as to alleviate some bleeding into his lungs.
Mr Jack said an emergency surgical team had re-established the blood supply to Osbourne's arm and reconstructed his left collarbone.