"I wouldn't be here" - Dustin May gets candid about how wife Millie Trautner saved Dodgers pitcher's life after harrowing near-death experience

The unbeaten LA Dodgers will have an emotional story to share as their starter, Dustin May, makes his first regular-season start since May 2023. A Tommy John surgery set him back for the first two months of the 2024 season, but it was followed by a near-death experience for the right-hander. Thanks to his wife, Amelia "Millie" Trautner, he still has life to be grateful for.

On the night of July 10, 2024, when he was having dinner with his wife, May took a bite of lettuce, which got stuck in his throat. After initial attempts to remove it, the right-hander was rushed to the ER, where the doctors had to conduct an emergency surgery to repair a tear in his esophagus. At the time, May was just a few minor league outings away from making his return to the majors.

On Tuesday, SportsNet LA released an interview with May and his wife, where the Dodgers ace thanked his wife for saving his life. May said that if not for his wife, he might have taken the situation lightly.

"It was definitely life and death," May said. "Like, if I hadn't gone to the hospital that night, I would not be here today. And I definitely have to thank my wife for that—for saving my life that night. Because I definitely would not have gone if I had been by myself."

After the reality set in for May, he started having the worst of his fears in regards to his baseball career.

"It was those first two and a half months where I was just kind of incapacitated, basically. I couldn’t really do much," May added. "Those were the moments where I thought, "Am I going to be able to come back? Am I going to be able to move like I used to? Am I going to be able to get through just normal life stuff, not even worrying about baseball? Am I just going to be able to live a normal life?

"That was one of my biggest questions. I mean, baseball is going to come and go. As I’ve seen over the last few years, I can't force it. I can't force myself to be healthy, no matter how badly I want to be."

Dustin May's wife Amelia recounts close call when they rushed to hospital

Dustin May's wife, Amelia, was proactive in making sure everything was all right with the Dodgers pitcher. She took him to the hospital that night and recalled the series of events during the same interview.

"The doctor told us, 'Oh, you probably had about four more hours,'" Amelia said. "And I was like, "Four more hours until what?" And he said, "Until things were really, really bad.

"When we were first getting the news about Dustin and he was in surgery, it was brought up—not in a bad way, but just in a way of, "Oh my gosh, I could be sitting here as a 27-year-old widow right now." And those are just words you never think you're going to have to say, especially at such a young age."

Amelia also shared that she was upset about how netizens started making jokes around in regard to May's incident, as she said it was really hard for her to cope with all of that while waiting for May to regain consciousness.

"So I think that was really hard—to see people making jokes when this was my real life that I was living," she added.

Things will get emotional once Dustin May makes his mark against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday.