by Jeremy Clarkson has spoken about having a stent fitted as he said: “Was I a day away from death? Maybe.”
The former Top Gear the presenter said he has written extensively about the “terrible effects of ageing” and experienced a “sudden decline” in his health after returning from a holiday in the Indian Ocean.
His symptoms included “clammy” hands and “tightness” in his chest, both of which he ignored, until he had pins and needles in his left arm. It was hearing the news of Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond’s fatal heart attack that led him to see a doctor, he wrote in his latest column for the Sunday Times.
At John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, a heart attack was ruled out after an ECG, blood tests and X-rays. He wrote: “It seems that one of the arteries that supply my heart with nutritious blood was completely blocked and the second of three was going that way.”
Clarkson was taken to the operating theater where doctors fitted a stent, which according to the NHS is a short tube and wire mesh that helps keep your artery open. Stents can save lives. Clarkson said he left thinking: “Crikey, that was close.”
Outspoken over the years, the star admitted that she enjoyed a life of eating red meat, drinking beer, smoking and choosing to drive fast cars instead of walking to the shops.
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host discussed his health problems.
Hearing loss
The Grand Tour star has battled hearing loss for 12 years and complained that people didn’t treat him with understanding when he struggled to hear.
Clarkson complained: “Why is the rage spittle-infused when I put my hand to my ear and say, ‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’
In June this year he revealed that he had been rushed to hospital after losing his hearing completely in one ear.
He explained: “There was no pop; there was no trauma. One minute it was functioning normally, and then there was nothing. I put my finger in my right ear and it was immediately covered in a complete blanket of silence.”
But now the TV star is seeking help to become the proud owner of a new pair of “snazzy” hearing aids.
Fear of dementia
Clarkson decided to seek medical help for his hearing loss after being warned that struggling could increase his risk of dementia.
He revealed: “I was told after my last medical that hearing loss will double my chances of getting dementia. Maybe it’s already happening. That explains why I can’t never find my glasses.”
The car lover revealed that it’s putting extra strain on his brain, because without hearing aids he has to “use a huge amount of computing power trying to fill in the bits of speech he can’t hear.”
Tobacco addiction
The Clarkson’s Farm star was an avid smoker and admitted he had a 40-day habit for 43 years of his life.
He said of cigarettes: “Besides the first one, there wasn’t one I didn’t like.”
But a health scare he suffered in 2017 prompted Clarkson to quit smoking.
The journalist told the Guardian that he was rushed to hospital in Spain while on holiday and was diagnosed with pneumonia.
He has since revealed: “For most of my adult life, stern-faced doctors warned me that if I didn’t quit smoking, I would suffer an agonizing and premature death.
“But then, as you can have heard, I got pneumonia while I was on vacation, and I said, to everyone, that I had to stop.”
Clarkson told how a medical checkup showed that his habit had a significant effect on his lungs.
He wrote in his 2018 autobiography: “I had to run up a flight of stairs, after which the doctor was horrified. I had 96 percent of the lung capacity you would expect for someone my age.”
With the help of nicotine gum he managed to quit smoking.
High blood pressure
For someone with such a commitment to sought-after speed and angry outbursts, it might not come as a surprise that Clarkson’s blood pressure was found to be higher than it should be.
The broadcaster revealed in the summer of 2023 that he was now advised to quit nicotine gum as well.
He said: “This week a doctor said my blood pressure is worryingly high and if I don’t get it put in soon, I will suffer an agonizing and premature death.”
aging joints
Clarkson admitted that his body is not as reliable as it used to be.
He wrote in The Sun in 2021: “My knees give me no confidence when I come down stairs.
“My back really locks up if I try to walk up a hill.”
And his weak knees mean he has to be careful working on his farm.
He admitted in May 2023: “There’s a lot of jumping involved in farming… But like almost every other farmer in Britain these days, I’m in my sixties, and my knees are so good.
“Which means I can tackle things, I can’t jump out of them anymore in case my legs bend the wrong way and it’s like that for six months.”
