(Associated Press) (12/12/03)

Edited By Michael Bennett

LONDON, UK - OZZY OSBOURNE stopped breathing and his heart stopped beating for more than a minute after a quad bike crash, a UK newspaper quoted his wife as saying today.

Sharon Osbourne said a security guard who was with Osbourne resuscitated him, the Daily Mirror tabloid reported.

"He had stopped breathing and the guard spotted it immediately," she reportedly said.

"He had stopped breathing for a minute and a half and there was no pulse."

"But, thank God, the security guard was there to revive him. He resuscitated him and got him breathing and his pulse going again."

"We are so, so grateful to him."

Osbourne fractured his left collarbone, eight ribs and a neck vertebra in Monday's ATV accident at his estate in Buckinghamshire, southern England.

He had emergency surgery after the crash to restore blood flow to a damaged blood vessel.

He has been on a ventilator in intensive care at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, west of London.

The hospital's medical director has said he expects the 55-year-old Black Sabbath star to make a steady recovery.

The director, Dr. Dick Jack, said Osbourne was "progressing well, but slowly."

"With each day, he becomes less dependent on the ventilator," the doctor said.

"It is still too early to take him off entirely. Otherwise he is well, with no complications."

Sharon Osbourne reportedly said doctors did not yet know whether her husband would have any long-term effects.

"The doctors are hoping there hasn't been any lasting damage, but until Ozzy can actually come round and get off the ventilator and then they will know," she was quoted as saying.

She reportedly added that her husband crashed as he drove over uneven ground and the bike landed on top of him.

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