Kevin Smith Says Heart Attack Is the "Best Thing" to Ever Happen to Him

A couple of months ago, Kevin Smith was rushed to the hospital after having some chest pains [...]

A couple of months ago, Kevin Smith was rushed to the hospital after having some chest pains during one of his standup shows. When he arrived at the hospital, he learned that he had suffered a severe heart attack, and was told that he might not have survived had he not gotten to the hospital so quickly.

This was a truly terrifying experience for the filmmaker and podcaster, but now that he's on the other side of it, Smith believes he's much better for it.

During an appearance on The Today Show, Smith called the heart attack "the best thing" to ever happen to him.

"I feel great! Honestly, the heart attack was the best thing to ever happen to me," Smith said with a chuckle. "And it makes sense because I had 100 percent blockage in the LAD, the big artery, the 'Widowmaker.'"

Smith continued to praise the work of the doctor that operated on him, and explained that the clearing of the artery immediately had him feeling like a new man.

"And so once the doctor opened up, this is this amazing guy that I just met that day, Dr. Ladenheim saved my life, went up my body, which sounds dirtier than I meant it. But he goes through your groin to get to your femoral artery to get up to your heart. So the dude went in there, and they keep you awake while it's going on, they don't knock you out, so I was talking the whole operation. He told me later on, he's like, 'You're very chatty. You wanted to know everything, what that was, you were singing a song [from] Degrassi?' And I was singing the theme song from Degrassi 'cause it's very hopeful. I was like, 'Whatever it takes I know I can make it through.' So they keep you awake and I was terrified the whole time. The other thing I kept talking about was like, I was afraid of dying, it's my biggest fear ever. But like, it happened almost and I was okay, I lived through it. My second biggest fear was anyone seeing me naked. And in the hospital, your chances of dying and being seen naked go up real huge and stuff. So I was terrified of that in the operating room. They kept me awake and the doctor said at one point, 'I'm gonna open the stint now and you tell me if you feel better.' And the moment he did I felt instantly better, and it made sense. None of the blood was going through there for who knows how long, it had a 100 percent blockage [for] years. So I wasn't getting proper oxygen and stuff, so now I feel great, man. It was fantastic."

In typical Kevin Smith fashion, a very real and very terrifying experience has been turned into something that people can have a good laugh about, making the filmmaker and his fans feel a lot better about the entire situation.

You can watch the full clip of Kevin Smith on The Today Show in the video above!

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