Martin Roberts has provided an update from hospital after a health scare saw him rushed through to an emergency operating ward. The Homes Under the Hammer presenter spoke to Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid about the terrifying ordeal on Good Morning Britain as he recovers in hospital.
Last week Martin learned from doctors he was suffering from a cardiac tamponade, when extra fluid builds up around the heart and puts pressure on it. Martin said the condition could have left him with "hours to live".
Speaking to the GMB hosts on Monday, April 25, Martin told how the hospital staff "literally saved" his life and explained how he watched fluid being drained from around his heart. Speaking from his hospital room, the 58-year-old detailed how he had been experiencing "a real tightness in my chest and difficulty breathing" over the Easter bank holiday weekend before being rushed to A&E.
Read more: Martin Roberts says doctors still worried after huge needle put into chest
He explained: "I am aware of the signs of a heart attack, which is those things but with tingling and things. So like a bloke I thought I'll just make it through the week.
"By the time it got to Tuesday, Wednesday, I was feeling so rubbish that my wife took me to A&E, and basically I was rushed through A&E and to cut a long story short, they found that I'd actually got water or liquid around my heart, which was compressing the heart to a point where at any point it could have stopped.
"Unlike a normal heart attack there is nothing you can do about it. You can't do the whole defibrillator or chest massage, because the heart itself is literally being strangled.
"So within three to four hours I was on an emergency operating ward, having a tube put into this sack around my heart and they drained off a litre and a half of fluid that was literally sort of strangling myself."
He added: "It was very bizarre as I was awake throughout the whole process and watched as they drew out all this effectively death-giving liquid from my chest.
"I'm still here in hospital being looked after wonderfully by the NHS staff. They literally saved my life, Richard."
Martin initially shared the news on Twitter last week with a video explaining what had happened. He captioned it: "So. Bit of a shocker. Thankfully I'm here to tell the tale…"
He said: "I have to say, this isn't where I expected to be watching Homes under the Hammer today. Bit of good news...bit of bad news...I ended up in the Royal University Hospitals Bath yesterday. Been having quite a few chest pains and feeling generally lousy.
"I was brought in here and turns out I had a massive amount of fluid all around my heart which was stopping my heart working. Had they not got rid of it - which they did in an emergency operation last night - then it's sort of quite serious, like hours to live. Here I am, still around thank goodness...thank the guardian angels, all of those things."
He added: "There's lots of other complicated things that have happened as a result, but we will work through those, and I’ll keep you updated. Meanwhile, there’s a good TV show on that I think I’ll watch here."
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV Hub. For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.
