Duane Chapman aka Dog the Bounty Hunter learns during an upcoming appearance on “The Dr. Oz Show” the results of a lung scan he received after he was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in September.
In an episode airing on Monday, Dr. Oz goes over lung scan results with the reality TV personality and reveals how bad the blockage was to one of Chapman’s arteries to his lungs, and even suggests more testing right there on the stage in front of the audience. “It really alarmed me and I was fearful of this,” Oz told him.
Check out the preview clip above, and click here for additional footage of the episode showing the effect of smoking on Chapman’s lungs.
“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. “That’s a piece of blood clot, that is actually inside the arteries of your lungs. That’s called a pulmonary embolism. 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.”
When Chapman received the diagnosis, he said the first thing that crossed his mind was, “How do we get rid of this?”
Chapman was hospitalized in September with chest pains, and afterward said they were caused by a “broken heart.” The chest pains were later diagnosed as a pulmonary embolism. The diagnosis came just three months after his wife Beth died of complications from throat cancer.
The condition can be treated with various medications, including blood thinners and clot dissolvers. In severe case, surgery may become necessary to remove the clot. Left untreated, it can be life-threatening.