Just over two months ago, the Call of Duty community was stunned and concerned to hear that one of the top-earning Warzone tournament players and popular streamer, Liam ‘Jukeyz’ James, was in a coma after suffering complications from an asthma attack. While Jukeyz woke a few days later, and has gone on to make a full recovery, it was still a scary and significant event for the streamer, who’s well known for his confident and boisterous nature.
Speaking to The Loadout during an interview that will be posted later this week, Jukeyz describes what happened on the day of his health scare, how he felt returning to his community after the incident, and how the release of Warzone 2 has helped him get back into his old rhythm.
Describing the events, Jukeyz says that, in a nutshell, he experienced three “really bad” and “uncontrollable” asthma attacks. He explains that while he caught an initial asthma attack by using his inhaler, he remained short of breath and called for an ambulance.
He says the final thing he remembers is being pricked in the arm to be sedated while sat in the ambulance, only to “wake up in intensive care three or four days later”.
Jukeyz learned afterwards that, even while under, he then had another severe asthma attack, which ultimately led to his heart stopping for over two minutes due to a lack of oxygen.
Despite such a severe medical scare, Jukeyz says that his physical health is now “pretty good” and made an almost immediate recovery after waking from his coma. However, it’s the emotional side where things haven’t been so straightforward, even for the self-described “super positive” streamer.
In his return stream, which involved no gameplay and just Jukeyz sat talking to his viewers, the Red Bull and London Royal Ravens representative says he felt “so many different emotions”.
“I was happy, I was sad, I was confused – just everything all in one,” he explains. “I couldn’t really explain how I felt… It wasn’t until like a week later, two weeks later, when I started to settle down and, you know, accept it.”
While it was of course encouraging and welcome at the time, Jukeyz says that reflecting on all of the messages of support he received during and after his coma was “scary”.
“Seeing all [those] things on Twitter, it was like coming back from the dead,” he recalls. “Even when I’m trying to move forward and be positive – and obviously, I can be super positive. I’ve survived something which you’re not really meant to – my GP said he’d never seen anyone survive what happened to me. So, there’s a lot of positives to take away from it, and I was [trying to do that], but then I just couldn’t help but think about how lucky I am and then the negative side of things of how scary it would have been for people around me. My brain never stopped to be honest.”
However, Jukeyz says that the release of Warzone 2 has helped him massively when it comes to refocusing and getting back into his old rhythm. It’s no secret that Jukeyz was not the biggest fan of the Caldera-era of Warzone, so Warzone 2 was always going to be welcomed, but the game has certainly had the added benefit of taking his mind away from his health scare.
“My vibes are up, the community’s pumping, and everyone’s happy,” he says confidently.
You can hear more from Jukeyz later this week, which includes his thoughts on Warzone 2 and how it stacks up to its predecessor, the meta and his picks for the best Warzone 2 guns, what’s in store for the competitive scene, and his future plans.