Legendary journalist and talk show host Larry King has been hospitalized after reportedly suffering a heart attack last week.
According to TMZ, King went into cardiac arrest on Thursday and was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance. When he arrived, doctors were able to perform an angioplasty and insert stents into King's heart to open a collapsed artery. King is said to have spent several days in the hospital's cardiac intensive care unit, but he is expected to discharged and return home on Monday.
However, King’s production company is disputing reports he went into cardiac arrest and suffered a heart attack.
“To be clear, and contrary to published reports, his doctors say he did not have a heart attack and he did not go into cardiac arrest,” according to a statement from Ora TV, which produces Larry King Now and PoliticKING with Larry King, via The New York Daily News.
Per sources, King has been experiencing respiratory issues for several months which physicians felt were linked to problems with his heart. In fact, the journalist was preparing to visit the hospital for a scheduled heart procedure the day the incident took place.
This is not the first time King has fell victim to a heart attack. For more close to thirty years King has struggled with a weakened circulatory system. In 1987, King had a massive heart attack that resulted in quintuple-bypass surgery as well as other health scares.
This battle with heart disease led King to pen two critically acclaimed novels, Mr. King, You're Having a Heart Attack: How a Heart Attack and Bypass Surgery Changed My Life and Taking On Heart Disease: Famous Personalities Recall How They Triumphed over the Nation's #1 Killer and How You Can, Too in hopes to bring awareness to the illness.
