Drew Carey recalls ignoring heart attack signs before emergency surgery: 'I felt numb in my shoulder'

Drew Carey recently shared a harrowing story from 2001 about mistaking his heart attack symptoms for something minor, even pushing through a jog and dinner date with his girlfriend. The comedian and 'The Price Is Right' host opened up detailing how denial nearly cost him dearly during his overweight phase while filming 'The Drew Carey Show.'Drew Carey, now 67, explained he was significantly overweight and decided to jog to shed pounds ahead of resuming production. Wearing a heart monitor, he hit the street near his home. In a podcast on the March 4, 2026, episode of Ted Danson’s podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, he said“I was jogging down my street, and my heart rate went up to like 160 or something like that, really crazy, and I felt numb in my shoulder,” Drew Carey recounted on the podcast.He recognized classic heart attack signs from articles he had read but dismissed them. “I thought if someone had a heart attack, they would just go ‘Ugh’ and collapse like in a cartoon,” he said, laughing at his naivety. Slowing down dropped his heart rate to 80 beats per minute, so he kept going until symptoms returned, forcing him home shaken.An odd “omen” added to the unease: spotting a deer, which he later saw as a warning. Still, Drew Carey called his then-girlfriend Nicole Jaracz, describing the scare. “I said, ‘I just experienced the strangest thing. I had all these symptoms similar to a heart attack. It really freaked me out,’” he recalled her asking, “Oh, sweetheart, is there anything you want to do or anything I can do for you?” His response? “Yes, I want to go to Bob’s Big Boy. I want to hold you while I play Civilization on my laptop.”The pair headed to the Burbank diner, where Nicole hugged him as he gamed, ignoring the red flags. Drew Carey later reflected on the chili spaghetti he ate as a poor choice post-scare. The next day, symptoms worsened during rehearsals.Climbing stairs to his trailer left him winded. “As I stepped up the stairs to my trailer, I thought, ‘Oh boy, that was tough,’” he shared. In the writers’ room, chest tightness hit hard. He told the producer, “You need to call an ambulance; I believe I’m having a heart attack.”Hospital tests revealed a 95 percent blocked artery. Doctors performed a coronary angioplasty, inserting a stent to restore blood flow. Drew Carey has since transformed his health, dropping 80 pounds over the past decade through diet and exercise.He credits the ordeal with reshaping his life, now advocating awareness. “I was really shaken,” he emphasized on the podcast, urging others not to brush off subtle signs like shoulder numbness or erratic heart rates. His candid tale serves as a wake-up call on listening to your body amid busy schedules.