Kyle Sandilands reveals second aneurysm

Radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands has revealed his brain aneurysm will require more complicated treatment than first expected, and that his doctors have found another aneurysm, this time in his chest.

On Monday, the KIIS FM breakfast host told listeners he needed urgent surgery for an aneurysm in his brain. He has continued hosting his show with co-host Jackie “O” Henderson this week.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson.Credit: Instagram

In their Friday morning broadcast, Sandilands said surgeons would need to drill through his skull to treat the brain aneurysm – a much more invasive treatment than what had first been proposed.

The 53-year-old said doctors had planned to thread a needle through an artery to pack the aneurysm with coils, but had discovered it was on a Y-shaped junction of a blood vessel, making the procedure impossible.

“The blood pressure has been so strong through me, it’s buckled the shape of the veins,” he said.

Royal Melbourne Hospital’s head of neurointervention Professor Peter Mitchell said earlier this week the less invasive endovascular treatment was more common, but open surgery was required in about 20 per cent of aneurysm cases.

“They have to drill a hole through my skull the size of a drinking glass, pull that bit of skull out and go into the brain and clip it off,” Sandilands said.

He said the aneurysm was in the front right side, and scarring on his forehead from the surgery would be significant. “I’d be FrankenKyle forever,” he said.

Sandilands said any surgery would be dangerous because of his high blood pressure, weight, and sleep apnea, which could cause him to stop breathing while under anaesthesia.

“As soon as I do any procedure my risk goes right up,” Sandilands said.

Sandilands and Henderson have been on air together for nearly 20 years. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found the show to have repeatedly breached radio decency rules, including for hurtful comments Sandilands made about Paralympians. In late 2023, they signed a deal reportedly worth more than $200 million to keep them at the station for 10 years.

Sandilands said his doctor gave him the weekend to weigh up his options because it was unlikely the aneurysm would rupture in the next couple of days – an event that would cause permanent disability or death.

“I’d be a vegetable in a chair for the rest of my life, or dead. They’re the options, there is no coming back once it’s [burst],” he told listeners.

Sandilands said doctors had found the other aneurysm in his aorta and he was at a 25 per cent risk of having a heart attack. He said he would need another operation to alleviate calcium build-up in his heart.

After finding out his treatment options, his family and friends were devastated, he said, and acting as if he had been given a death sentence, but he felt fine.

“I didn’t have a worry in the world … I’m not a panicker,” he said.

Sandilands declined to comment.

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