The Cardiac Kid: Triple Bypass Surgery Can’t Stop Regis Philbin
Knowing the signs of heart disease can save your life. Just ask Regis Philbin. For two weeks in 2007, the popular host of Live with Regis and Kelly and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire had been experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. Fortunately, Regis decided to see his personal physician, who diagnosed the problem: a build-up of plaque in the coronary arteries. If he had not taken action, Regis could have suffered a serious or even fatal heart attack.
Regis underwent open-heart triple-bypass surgery on March 14, 2007. During the procedure, Dr. O. Wayne Isom, who had also performed a quadruple bypass surgery on David Letterman, removed a section of artery from the leg to replace the blocked coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. After a six-week recovery period, Regis was back on the air. “What an occasion this has been,” said the then 75-year-old Philbin upon returning to the air. David Letterman was a guest on that first show, and the two bypass veterans compared their scars from the surgery.
This wasn’t the first time Regis has had medical problems with his heart and arteries. In 1993 and again in 2000, the famous media personality had an angioplasty performed. During this procedure, a balloon or stent is used to widen the diameter of a partially blocked artery. And in 2010, Regis had a blood clot removed from his calf.
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