TOP GEAR star Jeremy Clarkson has had heart surgery following the sudden death of former first minister Alex Salmond.
The 64-year-old revealed in his Sunday Times column that he went to see his doctor after hearing of Salmond’s shock death from a heart attack on October 12.
Clarkson wrote: “For some reason Alex Salmond — whose bankruptcy arrived very suddenly last week — popped into my head, so a doctor arrived and then I was in an ambulance and then I was at a hospital in a gown.”
After being transported by ambulance to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, Clarkson then had a procedure to have a sten fitted, which improves blood circulation. Tests ruled out a heart attack.
The Grand Tour presenter had recently suffered "a sudden deterioration of health" where tests found he was "days away" from becoming seriously ill.
A swim on holiday appeared to cause Clarkson difficulties using stairs, with symptoms worsening when he returned to the UK including a “tightness in my chest” and “pins and needles in my left arm”.
“It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way,” he told The Sunday Times.
In September, Clarkson bid farewell to presenting Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour, alongside long-time co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond.
