Will my boyfriend die?

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My boyfriend got a cold at the week-end but now it's gone down to his chest and he said today he had moments where he can't breathe properly. He sounds very stuffed up and has a cough. He's going to the doctor tomorrow.

I am feeling so worried in case he dies. He has smoked for years (he's 20 years older than me I must mention), and he gets sleep apnea, so I'm scared this cold or chest infection might kill him.

What if he rings me up tomorrow saying he's got sent to hospital? What if the doctor diagnoses him with Pneumonia or some sort of life-threatening lung disease? All these thoughts are racing around in my head and I can't sleep. I've been a bit grouchy all day because of this (got in an argument at work this morning, and this afternoon I was rude to a guest at my house).

I keep having terrifying thoughts, as though something is telling me that our relationship will be a thing of the past because he might die this week from this virus. I hope these thoughts are wrong.
Is it a normal part of a cold for it to go to your chest and make you temporarily unable to breathe? Do colds like this kill middle-aged men who have smoked heavily for years?
I just need some reassurance. I really hope I am just overthinking.

It sounds to me like he's got a bad cold. Many people have bad colds right now; it's going around.

People only die from these kind of things if they are in extremely fragile health (i.e., in the hospital already with some chronic disease or other, and elderly besides).

I would say there's at least a 99.9% chance that you are overthinking this.

Calm down. It would be a freak thing if he were to die due to a cold, even if he has smoked.

People who die from pneumonia do so because they go untreated and generally even then if they are already in a weakened state to begin with. A middle aged man is highly unlikely to get something that serious to be life threatening.

He will likely get some antibiotics and be scolded about his smoking - everyone knows that crap is terrible for you, he needs to stop it.

As far as the sleep apnea, they might have him put on a CPAP, which is just a thing to help him breathe at night. My sister had one for a while. Is he heavy? They might also tell him he needs to lose weight if he is.

Just relax. There are lots of folks with a cold and it probably sounds a whole lot worse than it is.

Thanks for the replies. He is actually getting better, so I do feel more relaxed. His chest still feels tight but if he's feeling a lot better then it must just be a virus.

About the smoking, I hate it too and I wish he didn't smoke. He did try giving up but failed. But apparently it's so hard to give it up.