Hollywood actor Bob Odenkirk has credited CPR, his being in great shape for a film and a defibrillator as factors that saved his life when he suffered a heart attack last July.
The ‘Better Call Saul’ star dropped by The Howard Stern Show on Monday and talked about just how close to death he came in New Mexico while working on his AMC series.
Odenkirk said he was worked on immediately after he suffered the medical emergency, with someone on set starting CPR, which the actor said, “saved my life.” The series’ health officer then ran to her car and got a defibrillator, which was used on the actor three times, Odenkirk told Stern.
“Which is actually a lot, Howard. When the defibrillator doesn’t work once, that’s not good. When it doesn’t work the second time, that is kind of like, forget it. But then they jacked it up a third time, and it got me back to a rhythm,” he said.
Odenkirk also credited being in great shape for his role in ‘Nobody’ as helping to save his life.
“Because I was in good shape, you kind of enlarge other veins around your heart, if you work out a lot. And I was told that more blood was able to go to my heart during CPR because these veins were just a little bit bigger from a lot of working out,” he said.
Odenkirk explained to Stern that the surgery that took place the morning after the heart attack was successful and the built-up plaque was cleared from his left heart anterior. Odenkirk was back to work on his show in early September.
“Take CPR classes, because you can save lives with them,” Odenkirk told listeners, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
