Dr. Oz Reveals Results of Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Medical Lung Scan
Duane Chapman, widely known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, learned the sobering truth about his current state of health during a visit to The Dr. Oz Show.
In an episode airing Monday, host Dr. Oz reveals the results of a lung scan, which shows Chapman, 66, has a pulmonary embolism — a sometimes deadly blockage within the lung’s arteries. Oz, 59, said the results “really alarmed me and I was fearful of this.”
“You see how this normal artery here has little white middle part? But this one has a little piece missing out of it. You notice it’s white on the outside but the middle is like an eclipse, real black,” Oz explained to Chapman and the studio audience. “That’s a piece of blood clot, that is actually inside the arteries of your lungs. That’s called a pulmonary embolism.
He continued: “The problem with these clots is when they block off the arteries, they don’t let any oxygen get to the lungs. There are plenty of folks who died from these emboli.”
In the exclusive clip ahead of the full episode, Oz asks Chapman what went through his mind when he found out the results of the analysis.
“The first thing I said was, ‘How do we get rid of this,’ ” Chapman responded.
There are various medications available to treat pulmonary embolisms, including blood thinners and clot dissolvers, and in some serious instances, surgery may be necessary to remove the clot, according to the Mayo Clinic. Common symptoms range from shortness of breath to chest pains.
Back in September, Chapman was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains, PEOPLE confirmed at the time. News of his latest health condition came just three months after the star’s wife Beth died of complications from throat cancer on June 26 at age 51.
Shortly after he was released from the hospital, Chapman said in an interview that his health scare is likely the result of a broken heart.
Chapman, speaking with PEOPLE Now last week, said the pulmonary embolism diagnosis was “scary.”
“I thought I had a heart attack,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Beth, please quit squeezing my heart, please.’ I thought it was it.”
He said Dr. Oz implored him to seek medical care when he wasn’t feeling up to it. “Dr. Oz came to me and said, ‘What are you doing? You’re crazy. Come back.’ So I did,” Chapman said. “You got to do what Dr. Oz says.”
Oz also told PEOPLE Now that the reality star was “fearful,” saying his grieving process greatly affected his strength at the time. “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,” Oz said. “Losing her took away his biggest support.”
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