‘Wheel of Fortune’ Host Pat Sajak Recalls ‘Intense’ Health Scare: ‘This Must Be What Death Is Like’
He recently landed in the hospital to undergo emergency surgery to repair a blocked intestine, but Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak is back on his feet — and he opened up about all that has gone down.
“I’ve actually felt ridiculously good for several weeks. I’ve been back in the studio spinning the wheel and nothing has popped,” the 73-year-old said during an interview on Good Morning America. However, the iconic game show host wasn’t feeling too well on the day everything occurred.
“It was that quick and that intense,” the TV personality recalled, nothing the “horrific” pain he felt that day — one that was serious enough to have him end up in the hospital. “You couldn’t do anything. I was in [a] fetal position, lying on the bed. They try to give you various drugs for the pain. And none of it was working. And then they gave me something, I couldn’t even tell you the name of it, but suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about the pain. I just had these beautiful pastels and lovely faces coming out of it.”
“In the background, I could hear my wife [Lesly] and daughter talking. It sounded like they were a mile off, but they were right next to me. They were talking to each other,” Pat continued. “And I remember thinking, not in a morbid way, ‘I think this must be death. This must be what death is like.’“ At the time though, Pat could only think about his family.
“Hearing their voices, I thought, ‘Boy, their lives are gonna change now.’ And I felt badly for them,” Pat added. “I didn’t feel badly about dying. I felt badly that they were gonna have to deal with the aftermath. As it turned out, I was just high.” Even though he had to stay take a break from the popular game show, his longtime cohost, Vanna White, stepped in.
“What a trooper. And I’m not being condescending in any way ’cause it would’ve been well within her rights to say, ‘Wait a minute, this is not what you’re payin’ me for. This is not what I do. And I’d rather not,’” Pat said. “But she’s a team player. And she was very nervous and not comfortable.”
Through this ordeal, what’s important as really been put at the forefront for Pat. “As I get older, I now appreciate what this show means,” he explained. “I’ve gotta do this until — you know — I’m doddering. I think I still do it at a high level. But you know, I can’t do it another 40 years, I know that, because I’d be 110, and that would be a record.”
We are just glad that all is well again with Pat. We look forward to seeing him make his return!
