T.D. Jakes Shares Details Of Near-Death Heart Attack Experience

Megachurch pastor, Bishop T.D. Jakes of the Potter’s House in Dallas recently shared new details about the reason for the medical emergency he suffered while preaching at his church on November 24.

“I didn’t really realize what was happening to me on stage until I got to the hospital and in an ambulance,” Jakes said in an exclusive interview with Today’s Craig Melvin.

“And then the doctor leaned over in my ear and said that ‘you’ve had a massive heart attack.’

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Video of the moment shows Jakes pausing on stage and shaking. His wife and other church staff rushed to his side and began praying.

The 67-year-old pastor said news of suffering a heart attack came as a surprise.

“I had none of the symptoms they say, no numbness, no sharp pain, no anything. Just kind of drifted off to sleep. I didn’t know what it was. But I almost died,” he said.

Earlier this year Jakes told his congregation, “They say I had a stroke. They say I died. They said I wouldn’t be back.”

In the new interview, the popular pastor described in further detail the medical emergency, including a near-death experience.

“The right side of my heart had completely stopped getting blood at all,” Jakes explained.

“And as long as I was up preaching, I felt fine. But when I sat down, the adrenaline dropped, and it exposed the fact that I was preaching with half my heart closed, through a clot. And they had to go get it.”

When asked what about the afterlife, he responded, “I wasn’t there in the chair. I didn’t experience what it looks like. It’s hard for me to look at that video. In my mind, I was in a quiet, peaceful, serene, white-enveloped, cloud-enveloped place. I was on my way out. Afterwards, in retrospect, it was such a privilege to stand on the other side to get a little glimpse of what that might be like or at least what it was like in that moment for me.”

Jakes returned to the pulpit in January. He is giving thanks for the prayers he received from his flock and from people around the world.

“I had my whole church praying. And when I say my whole church, I mean global, not just the congregation. Even people who didn’t go to my church. People everywhere sending prayers. I’m so thankful, and I want to use this opportunity to thank them. And while they were praying, the surgeons were operating while I was awake. They never put me to sleep,” Jakes said.

CBN