Bishop T.D. Jakes opened up about his health scare that happened in front of his congregation in the fall of 2024.
In a recent appearance on the Today, the pastor was candid about what caused his medical emergency in November 2024 while preaching on stage. He told journalist Craig Melvin that he was unaware of what was happening to him in real-time. He later found that what he experienced was a heart attack.
“I didn’t really realize what was happening to me onstage until I got to the hospital in an ambulance and fussing that it happened onstage, by the way, because I didn’t want it to happen, and the doctor leaned over my ear and said, ‘You had a massive heart attack,’” Jakes told Melvin according to the news outlet.
The preacher went on to share that he ultimately wasn’t aware of what happened because he didn’t feel any physical indicators.
“The reason I didn’t realize it was because I had none of the symptoms that they say,” Jakes explained. “No numbness, no sharp pain, no anything. I just kind of drifted off to sleep. I didn’t know what it was, but I almost died.”
“(The doctor) said five minutes later, I’d have been dead on arrival,” he added. “The right side of my heart had completely stopped getting blood at all.”
Additionally, the 67-year-old described what he recalled at the moment.
‘I was on my way out’
“As long as I was up preaching, I felt fine,” he said. “But when I sat down, the adrenaline dropped, and it exposed the fact that I was preaching with half of my heart closed through a clot. And they had to go get it.”
Despite the pastor’s not being a fan of rewatching the live stream video of the alarming occurrence, he briefly discussed what he could recall at that moment.
“It’s hard for me to look at that video,” he mentioned. “They had to claw the microphone out of my hand. But in my mind, I was in a quiet, peaceful, serene, white-enveloped, cloud-enveloped space.
“I was on my way out,” he remarked to elaborate. “Afterwards in retrospect, it was such a privilege to stand on the other side, to get a little glimpse of what it might be like, or at least what it was like in that moment for me. I think it was absolutely amazing.”
T.D. Jakes suffered a near-fatal heart attack.
As Blavity reported, after about an hour of delivering a sermon during a typical Sunday service at his nondenominational church, The Potter’s House in Dallas, TX, members and visitors were alarmed as they witnessed Jakes encounter a threat to his health shortly after he prayed the biblical scripture of Psalms 19:14, per Christian Post.
The same day, a spokesperson for the religious organization released a statement on its social media channels to update and soothe the public’s worries.
“During today’s service, Bishop T.D. Jakes experienced a slight health incident and received immediate medical attention following his powerful hour-long message. Bishop Jakes is stable and under the care of medical professionals,” the statement read. “The entire Potter’s House family is grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers, and support from the community. Thank you for your understanding and continued prayers.”
On Dec. 1, just one week after he underwent emergency surgery, Jakes uploaded a self-recorded video to his Instagram that was played for his churchgoers during service. The caption read: “I’m incredibly grateful to have shared an update with you earlier this week, and today brought another special moment. Please take a moment to check out my brief message—I eagerly anticipate the day when we can worship together in person once again. #TPHOnline.”
Jakes preached again for the first time since his heart attack at the annual New Year’s Eve service The Potter’s House hosts.
