02/04/2025
TD Jakes Speaks About His ‘Massive Heart Attack’ and Sexual Abuse Allegations on ‘TODAY’
March 28, 2025
By
Jesse T. Jackson
Bishop T.D. Jakes provided new details on his “slight health incident” that he experienced while preaching on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024.
Following Jakes’ health scare, The Potter’s House, a 30,000-member Dallas megachurch Jakes founded in 1996, released a statement saying, “During today’s service, Bishop T.D. Jakes experienced a slight health incident and received immediate medical attention following his powerful hour long message.”
The church shared that “Bishop Jakes is stable and under the care of medical professionals. The entire Potter’s House family is grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers, and support from the community.”
TD Jakes Addresses Health Scare
On Wednesday, March 26, Jakes told Craig Melvin of ‘TODAY’ that he actually suffered a “massive heart attack” that nearly killed him.
“I didn’t really realize what was happening to me on stage until I got to the hospital in an ambulance and [was] fussing that it happened on stage because I didn’t want it to happen,” Jakes said. “And the doctor leaned over in my ear and said, ‘You had a massive heart attack.’”
Jakes continued, “The reason I didn’t realize it is because I had none of the symptoms that they say [happen], no numbness, no sharp pain, no anything. I just kind of drifted off to sleep. I didn’t know what it was, but almost died.”
The bishop shared that the doctor told him if he hadn’t received medical attention as quickly as he did, “five minutes later I would have been dead on arrival.”
“The right side of my heart had completely stopped getting blood at all, and as long as I was up preaching, I felt fine,” he added. “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.”
Jakes described himself being “on his way out” and said that “it was such a privilege to stand on the other side just to get a little glimpse of what that might be like, or at least what it was like in that moment for me.” He called the moment “absolutely amazing.”
Jakes said, “I’m so thankful, and I want to use this opportunity to thank” those who prayed for him while he was in surgery.
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