Martin Roberts has opened about his terrifying health scare and the moment he watched doctors plunge an 'eight inch needle' into his chest in a race to save his life.
The Homes Under The Hammer star, 58, was r ushed to hospital this week, unknowing at the time he was just 'hours away from dying.'
"It's the nearest thing to not being here that has ever happened to me," said Martin, as he recovers from his ordeal.
Martin said he started to feel unwell over Easter Bank Holiday, with him putting his symptoms down to long Covid or asthma.
By Wednesday, the TV presenter feared he was suffering a heart attack and was taken to hospital by his wife Kirsty with doctors attending to him within '45 seconds' of his arrival.
Martin said a series of tests revealed his blood pressure had dropped to half of that of a healthy person and his liver and kidneys were down to '30 per cent' their normal capacity.
It was then discovered that Martin was suffering with an excess of water around his heart that was preventing it from pumping correctly.
"In my case, it turns to something called a cardiac tamponade, which is where it fills rapidly and starts strangling the heart. And that's... that's the killer. It can result in death," Martin said in an interview with OK!
Opening up about the terrifying moment a doctor plunged an eight inch syringe into his chest to drain the fluid, Martin recalled: "I watched as they drew out syringe after syringe after syringe of this liquid. I was awake for this, but I was bit woozy. There was a tube that went in through my chest cavity, down into the sack around my heart."
They then pulled the fluid out and squirted it into "a plastic beaker".
"In the end there was about a litre and a half of stuff they took out."
As he continues his recovery, Martin said doctors fear he has an underlying respiratory condition that caused the problem.
He is now on antibiotics but said his liver is 'still struggling' with doctors keeping an eye on his progress.
Speaking on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday, Martin said he could stay in hospital fo 'weeks'.
The health scare comes after Martin made a 'mercy dash' to the Ukraine border in March to donate supplies to refugees fleeing the country.
Martin told his followers in March he was fuelled on 'wine gums and Red Bull' to complete his mission.
In the update, he told how he had driven for 26 hours with little break to reach those in need.
