He's basically the Christian Eriksen of metal.
For those of you who don't know, Eriksen is a footbal player that, during an Euro 2020 match, collapsed in the middle of the field, and was promptly cared for and basically brought back from death right then and there. If he had the heart failure at night or when he was alone at home, he would have died.
Basically Richie is alive because, in the sheer bad luck he had, he was lucky that the events allowed for him to be taken swiftly care of. Geez, to go from Priest to Bruce Springsteen, it's really true that "one minute you're here, next minute you're gone", mh? scary....