Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman was way closer to joining his late wife Beth in the ever after when he neglected his health and ended up diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism. Dr. Oz tells him his heart is a ‘ticking time bomb.’
Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman was hospitalized over weekend of September 14 after suffering a “heart emergency.” It turns out now that his cardiac event was a serious one, as he’s been diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in the heart, where one or more arteries is blocked by a blood clot, which could lead to a heart attack. The 66-year-old appears on the Sept. 30 episode of Dr. Oz, where Dr. Mehmet Oz travels to Dog’s Colorado home to tell him how serious his condition is. Duane reveals he doesn’t want to die, even though he said he wasn’t afraid of death after his beloved wife Beth lost her battle with throat cancer on June 26.
“I’m looking at you and telling you as a friend. You’re a ticking time bomb,” Dr. Oz explains to Duane in a clip from the episode. “You’re not going to be here with the heart the way it is right now. And fear of death is normal. I’m surprised you don’t fear death when you’re chasing after convicts. But when you run away from a doctor, that means you’ve got to do your own doctoring.”
Duane appeared on Dr. Oz’s daytime show on Sept. 12, just a few days before his cardiac event. He now says, “Well I all the time stick my foot in my mouth and I said after Beth left I’m not afraid to die.” “You said that on the show,” Dr. Oz reminds him. “Oh I was afraid to die. I said ‘Please let go of my heart honey. Quit squeezing my heart.’ So I take that back. I’m not afraid to die, but I don’t want to,” he tells the doc.
Ahead of the episode airing. Dr. Oz tells PEOPLE that Duane was “denying care that he knew would be life saving. [Duane] was fearful,” he reveals. “Beth had been his north star. She was the one that would go with him and keep him balanced so he could deal with these things. Losing her took away his biggest support. I said, ‘What would Beth do? What would she say to you?’ I don’t think she’d be happy with what you’re doing. ‘You’re throwing away your life, you’re throwing away your ability to parent your kids. You have to man up.’ That’s what she would say,” he tells the publication.
While Duane hates going to the doctor, he’s much more careful about his health following his diagnosis. “I hesitated for a minute thinking, I don’t want to have to go through this again,” Dog tells PEOPLE. “I don’t want to die right now. I’m not afraid to die anymore, but I really didn’t care for a while if something would happen. I do care now.” He’s now on blood thinners, eating healthy and trying to quit smoking. “Once this goes away, I am 100 percent. I’ve had fears. The blood clot is not a normal thing but it happens a lot, but I’m going to be 100 percent. I’m encouraged by it,” he says.
