Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he recently underwent emergency heart surgery, including the insertion of a stent, after he was suddenly taken ill after returning home from holiday. 

The star of The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm, both huge hits on the streamer Amazon Prime, wrote in his column for The Sunday Times newspaper that he felt clammy, with a tightness in his chest and pins and needles in his left arm. 

He wrote: “I certainly wasn’t having a heart attack. But if it hadn’t looked that way, I never would have been sent to hospital.”

The TV farmer added that a few days before, while on holiday in the Indian Ocean,  he had to “take a moment to make sure my limbs were working properly” when he stood up, “struggled” with swimming, and could not descend a flight of stairs “without holding someone’s hand.”

“These problems all manifested themselves in one day, which made the rest of my holiday extremely relaxing because all I did was sit in a chair drinking wine and eating cheese,” he wrote. 

“Back at home, though, the sudden deterioration began to gather pace. I woke on Wednesday morning not feeling too good. I was clammy and there was a tightness in my chest.”

He was taken by ambulance to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where a heart attack was ruled out after he underwent checks. He then had fitted a stent – a tube inserted into a blocked artery to open it and allow blood to flow.

“The next morning I went home, and here I am, two hours later, writing this and sort of thinking, ‘Crikey, that was close.’”

The Sudden Deterioration

Clarkson detailed his experience in his column for The Sunday Times, describing how his health took a turn for the worse while on holiday. He wrote about struggling to swim and walk up stairs, explaining how “these problems all manifested themselves in one day.”

Upon his return home, Clarkson said he woke up feeling “clammy” with a tightness in his chest. He then began to experience pins and needles in his left arm. The “sudden deterioration” that “began to gather pace” left him especially concerned after the death of Alex Salmond from a heart attack earlier this month. Clarkson was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford by ambulance.

The Diagnosis and Procedure

After undergoing several checks, including an electrocardiogram (ECG), Clarkson was told he was not having a heart attack. However, a scan revealed that his arteries were blocked or nearly blocked. Clarkson’s doctor told him that a potentially fatal heart attack was “maybe” days away.

Clarkson was admitted to the operating theatre where a stent was inserted to keep his arteries open. He described the procedure as “just odd” and said that it “wasn’t especially painful.”

Back to Normal Life?

Despite the scare, Clarkson is recovering well. He has expressed gratitude for the medical professionals at John Radcliffe Hospital and is back to his regular routine, including filming Clarkson’s Farm and presenting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Clarkson, who recently opened a pub, called The Farmer’s Dog, in Asthall, near Burford, close to where he lives near Chipping Norton, said he is looking forward to “proving that ageing doesn’t have to be gradual, then sudden. It can be gradual and then gradual some more.”

Clarkson’s recent health scare is a reminder that even those who seem invincible are vulnerable to the realities of aging. His experience highlights the importance of recognizing early signs of health problems and seeking medical attention promptly.