Drew Carey took a pretty unconventional approach to suffering a heart attack back when he was working on his hit sitcom The Drew Carey Show.
The Price is Right host, 67, appeared on the Wednesday, March 4 episode of Ted Danson’s podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name. At the top of the show, Carey discussed the time he had a heart attack but didn’t seek medical help right away — in fact, he did probably one of the worst things you can do after a heart attack.
“I was really overweight, and we were supposed to come back to start taping,” he told Danson. “I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to lose some weight.’ So, I thought I was going to start jogging. I had a little chest monitor or whatever, and I was jogging down the street, and my heart rate went up to 160 or something like that. Like, really crazy.”
“Then I felt numb in my shoulder, all the things I read were heart attack symptoms. But, I thought when you had a heart attack, you’d go ‘uh’ and fall down, like in a cartoon,” Carey explained. “I thought that’s what happened when you had a heart attack.”
Not realizing he was having a heart attack, Carey tried to continue jogging, only for his heart rate to shoot up again. He said he saw a deer cross his path, “which is supposed to be an omen,” so he went home. He called his then-girlfriend and told her what happened, and she asked what he wanted to do.
Instead of going to the hospital or calling a doctor, he said he wanted to go out to dinner and have her hold him while he played the video game Civilization on his laptop. So, that’s what they did. What’s more, he ordered one of the least heart-healthy meals.
“Chili spaghetti,” he said, prompting a shocked laugh from Danson.
Thinking he was still OK, he went to work at the sitcom’s writers’ room the following day when he began having chest tightness again, prompting him to finally ask producers to call him an ambulance.
After saying goodbye, just in case, to his good friend Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon, he was off to the hospital, where he underwent surgery to get a stent in his heart to prevent future blockage.