Drew Carey Says His Misconceptions About Heart Attacks Led Him to Ignore Warning Signs

‘I thought if you had a heart attack, you would go “ugh” and fall down like in a cartoon,’ said the TV host as he described his 2001 scare.

Host Drew Carey taping an episode of "The Price Is Right" that aired on Oct. 17, 2016. Monty Brinton/CBS via AP

Comedian and television host Drew Carey recently revealed that he once ignored clear warning signs of a heart attack because he misunderstood how the condition typically presents.

Speaking on the podcast “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” hosted by “Cheers” actor Ted Danson, Carey said the incident occurred while he was starring in the ABC sitcom “The Drew Carey Show,” which ran from 1995 to 2004. According to Carey, he experienced classic symptoms during a 2001 jog but dismissed them because he believed a heart attack would involve sudden collapse or dramatic pain.

“I was jogging down my street, and my heart rate went up to like 160 or something like that, like really crazy,” Carey said on the podcast. “And I felt like numb in my shoulder.”

Despite recognizing that the sensations matched symptoms he had read about, Carey said he did not initially think he was in immediate danger.

“All the things that I read were heart attack symptoms,” he said. “But I thought if you had a heart attack, you would go ‘ugh’ and fall down like in a cartoon.”

Carey explained that he slowed his pace, which caused his heart rate to drop, but when he began jogging again it quickly spiked back up. Instead of seeking medical attention, he decided to walk home and later went out to dinner with his girlfriend at the time.

“I had all these heart attack-like symptoms,” Carey recalled telling her, adding that he ultimately chose to go to Bob’s Big Boy for chili spaghetti and iced tea.

The following day, Carey returned to work for the start of production on the next season of “The Drew Carey Show.” After completing rehearsal, however, the tightness in his chest returned and intensified.

Carey said he stepped away and went to his trailer, where climbing the stairs proved difficult. That was the moment he realized the situation was serious.

“I got on the phone to the producer,” Carey said. “I said, ‘Hey, you have to call the ambulance. I think I’m having a heart attack.’”

Before being taken to the hospital, Carey said he called his friend Sam Simon, a co-developer of “The Simpsons” who had also worked on “The Drew Carey Show.” Carey said he wanted to see Simon before leaving for the hospital because he feared the worst.

“I just wanted to make sure I touched him before I went off because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said.

Carey was hospitalized overnight, during which doctors inserted a stent to treat a severely blocked artery. According to a report from ABC News in 2001, the blockage was estimated to be about 95 percent.

Following the incident, Carey said he made significant changes to his lifestyle, including improving his diet and eliminating alcohol. He said his eating habits shifted from heavy meals with few vegetables to simpler foods such as steak with vegetables and salads.

“When I’m eating, like, a salad that has green beans and stuff in it, I’m like, ‘Man, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, I wouldn’t have touched this,’” he said.

Carey, 67, rose to national fame in the 1990s as the star and co-creator of “The Drew Carey Show,” which aired from 1995 to 2004. In 2007, he became host of the long-running game show “The Price Is Right,” and he has continued to appear in television and comedy projects throughout his career.