Jeremy Clarkson "certainly wasn't having a heart attack" after returning from a holiday – but "if it hadn't looked that way, [he] never would have been sent to hospital."
That's according to his most recent The Sunday Times column, where the former Top Gear host revealed he had to undergo emergency heart surgery after suddenly falling ill when he came home from an Indian Ocean sojourn.
The 64-year-old had a stent inserted after an episode where he felt clammy, a tightness in his chest and pins and needles in his left arm, but the worrying symptoms had actually started days earlier.
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Jeremy Clarkson, pictured here with his girlfriend Lisa Hogan in July, has revealed he had to have emergency surgery after a recent holiday. (Getty)READ MORE: Lengths royal reporter took to meet Charles and Camilla
While on holiday, Clarkson noted that at one stage, he had to "take a moment to make sure my limbs were working properly" when he stood up, could not walk down a flight of stairs "without holding someone's hand" and "struggled" while swimming.
"These problems all manifested themselves in one day, which made the rest of my holiday extremely relaxing because all I did was sit in a chair drinking wine and eating cheese," Clarkson wrote.
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"Back at home, though, the sudden deterioration began to gather pace," he continued.
"I woke on Wednesday morning not feeling too good. I was clammy and there was a tightness in my chest."
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The former Top Gear host did not have a heart attack, though his symptoms were indicative of one, which is why he called an ambulance. (Drive)READ MORE: Four letters revealed their 'feud' had ended – but it was too late
He was taken via ambulance to a hospital in Oxford, near the farm where he lives and films the series Clarkson's Farm, where after a series of checks, a heart attack was ruled out – though his chest pain or discomfort, feeling faint or anxious, and the pins and needles, sweating and dizziness, are all classic symptoms of one.
Clarkson was fitted with a stent, which is a tube inserted into a blocked artery to open it and allow blood to flow through.
He wrote in his column: "The next morning I went home, and here I am, two hours later, writing this and sort of thinking, 'Crikey, that was close'."
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