TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he recently underwent a heart procedure after experiencing a ‘sudden deterioration’ in his health.
The 64-year-old former Top Gear host, who currently presents Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video, said he was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after noticing a catalogue of worrying symptoms.
Clarkson detailed how a swim while on holiday a few weeks ago in the Indian Ocean a left him ‘mostly dead’ and appeared to cause him difficulties using the stairs; when he returned home a ‘sudden deterioration began to gather pace’.
He says he had symptoms of being ‘clammy’, with a ‘tightness in my chest’, and ‘pins and needles in my left arm’, and after hearing the news of former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond’s fatal heart attack, he decided to take medical action.
Clarkson shared in his column for The Sunday Times that he ended up in an ambulance to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where a heart attack was ruled out after he had an electrocardiogram (ECG), blood tests and X-rays.
He was then whisked into an operating theatre, after further checks, and doctors warned him that he was perhaps ‘days away’ from getting very ill or worse.
Clarkson added: ‘It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way.’
He said a stent, which can save lives and stop future heart attacks through improving blood flow to the heart, was fitted in around two hours.
The motoring journalist recalled that it ‘wasn’t especially painful. Just odd’ and added that he has been thinking: ‘Crikey, that was close.’
On Friday, he had sparked concern among fans after sharing a post to Instagram which showed he had a bandaged wrist, which some linked to a possible hospital stay.
His column confirmed that was the case, referencing the doctor making ‘a hole in my wrist’ in order to insert a camera for a closer look at his heart.
‘God, it’s weird, lying there and feeling a metal pipe with a camera on the end wiggling its way round your shoulder and through your chest,’ he admitted.
Clarkson rounded off his column by saying he was ‘wondering what water tastes like and if it’s possible to make celery interesting’ following his health scare, as he seemed to consider lessening his meat intake.
He has previously revealed he had to quit smoking after contracting pneumonia on holiday in Spain.
Last month Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May left their show The Grand Tour behind on Prime Video, much to fans’ disappointment.
Clarkson has continued to present Clarkson’s Farm, which covers him running his Oxfordshire farm, on Prime Video, as well as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on ITV.
He recently opened a pub, called The Farmer’s Dog, in Asthall, near Burford, close to where he lives near Chipping Norton.
However, he has since confessed the new venture has put some financial strain on him.
The Clarkson’s Farm host admitted to The Daily Mail’s Tom Parker Bowles: ‘This place is costing us a fortune. God knows if we’ll ever make our money back.’
He also added it once had a very different name, saying: ‘We were going to call it The Dog Inn, in honour of the place once being a famous dogging site, but perhaps that was a little close to the bone.’
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