"Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak was sure he was going to die when he was rushed to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery.
As he lay in bed, curled up in agony and waiting to be wheeled into the operating room, his mind kept drifting back to death. Weeks later, the 73-year-old is in a much better state.
Sajak had an intestinal blockage that sent him to the hospital early in November. He was in a tremendous amount of pain and was convinced he was going to die.
"You couldn't do anything. I was in [a] fetal position, lying on the bed," he said. "They try to give you various drugs for the pain. And none of it was working."
Sajak said he could hear his wife and daughter talking in the background and although they were right by his side, they seemed so far away.
"And I remember thinking, not in a morbid way, 'I think this must be death. This must be what death is like,'" Sajak told "Good Morning America" on Friday. "Hearing their voices, I thought, 'Boy, their lives are gonna change now.' And I felt badly for them. 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."
He is up and about and ready to speak about the health scare. Sajak says he is feeling "ridiculously good," according to People.
"I've been back in the studio spinning the wheel and nothing has popped," he said.
Despite Sajak's thoughts, the surgery was a success and he is well into recovery.
"I'm as good or bad as new, and that's great," he said. "I still have my wits about me. They didn't remove that, so I'll be selling vowels for a long time."
Back at the studio, longtime TV partner Vanna White took over the reins in Sajak's absence.
For 37 years she has appeared on "Wheel of Fortune," turning letters as contestants solve puzzles, but this was the first time she hosted the show. She admitted to being nervous but despite the jitters, White captivated the audience with her charm.
"What a trooper," Sajak said of his co-star. "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,'" he continued. "But she's a team player."
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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