Drew Carey confessed that he ignored his heart attack symptoms while out doing other things back in 2001.
“I was really overweight, and we were supposed to come back to start taping [The Drew Carey Show] … We were going to start taping so I [wanted] to lose some weight. So I thought I was going to start jogging,” the comedian, 67, said during a Wednesday, March 4, appearance on Ted Danson’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast. “I had a little heart monitor, and I was jogging down my street, and my heart rate went up to … something really crazy, and I was like, ‘Oh.’ And I felt numb in my shoulder [and] all the things that I read were heart attack symptoms.”
Carey admitted he brushed it off because he didn’t realize it was a symptom at the time.
“I thought if you had a heart attack, you would go, ‘Ugh,’ and fall down like in a cartoon,” he added.
Carey shared that his heart rate and shoulder numbness was “worrisome” so he slowed down, which led to a decrease in his heart rate. After trying to run again, his heart rate increased so he decided to go home and rest. When Carey went home, he called his then-girlfriend to tell her what happened.
“I was really upset and I got her on the phone cause this thing happened,” he recalled. “And she goes ‘What’s wrong?’ I tell her, ‘I had the weirdest thing. I had all these heart attack-like symptoms. It really worried me.’”
Carey’s girlfriend asked if there was anything she could to help him and Carey told her he wanted to go to the hamburger restaurant Bob’s Big Boy and spend time with her while he played a computer game — which is what the pair did.
“We drive to Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank and she held me in her arms, and I had my laptop out and I played Civilization on my computer,” he said.
The following day, Carey went to set for rehearsals and the symptoms returned in a more serious fashion.
“I went to step up the stairs to my trailer, and I really went like, ‘Oh boy, that was rough,'” he recalled. “And I got on the phone to the producer, and I said, ‘Hey, you have to call the ambulance, I think I’m having a heart attack.’”
After being hospitalized, Carey underwent a coronary angioplasty. He had a stent inserted to open a 95 percent blocked artery. Since his experience, Carey has prioritized a healthier lifestyle. Over the past decade, Carey has lost 80 pounds through diet and exercise.
