'Better Call Saul' Star Bob Odenkirk Had No Pulse & Had To Be Revived 3 Times After Suffering Heart Attack
Feb. 9 2022, Published 6:41 p.m. ET
Bob Odenkirk has broken his silence about the heart attack he suffered months ago while filming Better Call Saul, and some of the details about the distressing situation may surprise you.
As RadarOnline.com reported, the 59-year-old actor was filming the hit show, in which he plays the eponymous Saul Goodman, in July 2021 when he suffered a heart attack in-between takes.
“We were shooting a scene, we’d been shooting all day, and luckily I didn’t go back to my trailer,” he told the New York Times in his first major interview since the terrifying health scare. “I went to play the Cubs game and ride my workout bike, and I just went down.”
“Rhea said I started turning bluish-gray right away,” he continued, referencing his co-star Rhea Seehorn who he was with during his break from filming.
Odenkirk also revealed that the show’s health safety supervisor, Rosa Estrada, and the assistant director, Angie Meyer, gave him CPR, although he still has no memory of the incident.
The biggest bombshell that Odenkirk revealed was that, following the heart attack, he not only had no pulse but that his heart still wouldn’t restart after being hit with the defibrillator two times.
“The third time, it got me that rhythm back,” the actor revealed. During Odenkirk's recovery, his co-stars filled him in on the harrowing experience.
“That’s its own weirdness,” Seehorn, who was also interviewed Wednesday, said about Odenkirk’s lack of memory regarding the incident. “You didn’t have a near-death experience — you’re told you had one.”
Odenkirk was promptly rushed to a nearby hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the filming of the show was taking place at the time. Once there, he underwent surgery for the buildup of plaque in his heart – and although it took two months to recover, the actor was back filming the final season of Better Call Saul months later in September.
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“Back to work on Better Call Saul!” he tweeted at the time. “So happy to be here and living this specific life surrounded by such good people.”
