Bob Odenkirk Needed 3 Defibrillator Shocks To Get His Pulse Back After Heart Attack
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Bob Odenkirk is recalling the harrowing heart attack he had last summer while shooting for ‘Better Call Saul.’
Months after his near-fatal heart attack, Bob Odenkirk is reflecting on that day he had to piece together after the fact and the Better Call Saul cast and crew who saved his life. “We were shooting a scene, we’d been shooting all day, and luckily I didn’t go back to my trailer,” he told the New York Times in a new interview. The actor shared that he instead went to a place nearby the set where he liked to sit with his co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian. “I went to play the Cubs game and ride my workout bike, and I just went down.” He added, “Rhea said I started turning bluish-gray right away.”
The actor, 59, noted that he knew “since 2018” that there was “plaque buildup” in his heart, but he didn’t have a clear direction from his doctors on what to do. “I went to two heart doctors at Cedars-Sinai, and I had dye and an M.R.I. and all that stuff, and the doctors disagreed” on a treatment plan. One doctor said he should start medication while another one said he could wait. Bob ultimately went with the latter option.
Bob then clarified that “one of those pieces of plaque broke up,” which caused his heart attack. His co-stars Rhea and Fabian called for help and the on-set health safety supervisor, Rosa Estrada, and an assistant director, Angie Meyer, began giving Bob CPR and shocking him with an automated defibrillator. The first two shocks didn’t bring back his pulse, but “the third time, it got me that rhythm back,” Bob stated.
When he was transferred to the hospital in Albuquerque, doctors went through the veins in his wrist and “and blew up the little balloons and knocked out that plaque and left stents in two places.”
Bob noted that, crazily enough, he didn’t recall the events of that day and instead needed his co-stars and members of the crew to piece together for him what really happened. “That’s its own weirdness,” Rhea told the Times of Odenkirk’s episode. “You didn’t have a near-death experience — you’re told you had one.”
After the episode, back in August 2021, Bob thanked friends, family, and fans for their support, trying to assure everyone he was doing okay.
“I am doing great,” he tweeted. “I’ve had my very own ‘It’s a wonderful life’ week of people insisting I make the world slightly better. Wow! Thank you, I love everyone right now but let’s keep expectations reasonable!”