Nothing can keepLarry Kingdown.
While celebrating his 86th birthday on Monday, the former CNN host opened up toExtraabout his health and how he’s been doing in the wake of thehealth scare he suffered earlier this year.
As it turns out, Larry revealed that he experienced yet another scary medical issue in March — just one monthbefore he underwent heart surgery— that left him in a coma for weeks.
“It’s been a rough year, I don’t remember anything since March — I had the stroke in March,” Larry continued. “I haven’t driven a car, but I’m back at work and that makes me feel great.”
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Despite being in the coma — which Larry said “lasted a couple weeks” — and undergoing heart surgery afterward, the veteran journalist noted that his doctors have been very impressed with his positive attitude.
The heart surgery and stroke are far from the first medical issues that Larry has experienced in his life.
The television personality previously suffered a heart attack in 1987 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999.
In 2017, Larry revealed he had beendiagnosed with stage 1 lung cancerafter getting an X-ray during a routine annual physical exam.
“I didn’t have any pain, but when they took a chest X-ray the doctor said, ‘There’s a little cloud here…,'” he told PEOPLE at the time. A CAT scan and PET scan followed, and his cancer diagnosis was confirmed.
The journalist underwent surgery to have the malignant mass removed.
“They went in through my ribs with a tiny camera and snipped it out,” he said. “I only had a little pain and some shortness of breath, but once my speech is back full — and that took about a week — I went right back to work.”
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“He had an episode with his heart over the weekend and he had an artery opened up and some stents put in,” an insider previously told PEOPLE. “But he’s remarkably strong. His doctors even say they don’t know how he bounces back from everything so quickly.”
In addition to his medical woes, Larry experienced hardships in his personal life over the summer,filing for divorcefrom his wife of nearly 22 years,Shawn Southwick King.
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A source close to the former CNN host told PEOPLE at the time that Larry’shealth scares influenced his decisionto file for divorce in August.
“Larry was close to dying, and it really shook him,” the source said. “He realized that he hadn’t been happy for a long time.”
“They fought and argued all the time,” the source added of the ex-couple, who share two sons. “This was a long time coming. The marriage has been over.”
source: people.com
