Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he had to undergo a heart procedure after doctors told him he was maybe “days away” from becoming seriously ill due to a blockage of his coronary arteries.
In a column for the Sunday Times, the 64-year-old wrote that he had to be taken to hospital before he had a stent fitted to open up a blocked artery.
Symptoms began with a “sudden deterioration” in his health following a holiday on an island in the Indian Ocean, the column read.
The former Top Gear host described having to “take a moment to make sure my limbs were working properly” and struggling to swim back to shore from a boat while on the trip.
“I’ve never struggled with swimming before, and now, suddenly, I can’t do it anymore.
“I’m not exaggerating. These problems all manifested themselves in one day.”
The “sudden deterioration began to gather pace” when he returned home to his Oxfordshire farm, Clarkson said.
“I woke on Wednesday morning not feeling too good. I was clammy and there was a tightness in my chest. Naturally, I ignored these things and, after loading 30 pigs into the slaughterhouse school bus, I noticed that I had pins and needles in my left arm.”
Taken to hospital by ambulance, Clarkson said doctors ruled out a heart attack but that further checks found he was “days away” from becoming very ill.
“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.”
A stent, which is a mesh tube that holds arteries open and improves blood flow to the heart, was inserted in about two hours.
“It wasn’t especially painful. Just odd,” he said.
