EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: ER's Deezer D On Heart Surgery That Saved His Life
Sep. 10 2009, Published 11:27 a.m. ET
Deezer D, the rapper-turned-actor who starred as Nurse Malik McGrath for 15 seasons on ER, had surgery in Los Angeles in July to correct the same potentially deadly heart problem that killed John Ritter, and RadarOnline.com spent the afternoon talking with him as he relaxed at the luxurious West Hollywood spa Gendarmerie.
"I had surgery," said Deezer, whose real name is Dearon Thompson. "I had an aneurysm in my heart," and the actor had to have his aorta replaced and a leaking heart valve replaced in a surgery that lasted six hours.
Amy Yasbeck, John Ritter's widow, reached out to Deezer after the surgery to ask him to work with her and The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health and he told us "I'm all about the cause, I feel blessed that they caught it."
With his surgery behind him Deezer told us how scared his good friends Eric LaSalle and Noah Wiley were when they visited him in the hospital. "Eric couldn't even look, it tripped them out."
Check out the video where Deezer talks about writing a book about his life and reminisces about playing hoops with George Clooney on the ER set.
Special thanks to the staff at Gendarmerie, located at 9069 Nemo Street in West Hollywood, CA.