A SPRINGWATCH star has opened up about how he was forced to save his own life after having a sudden heart attack while out jogging alone in the countryside.
Nature expert Iolo Williams, 61, did not even have his phone on him and was about six miles away from his car when disaster struck.
He told The Mirror: “It came like a bolt out of the blue. I knew what it was – intense pain under my sternum. It was a heart attack.”
The BBC presenter had to battle through the pain while walking back to his vehicle to call for help.
Iolo knew it would be even harder to get help if he collapsed out in the wild, so he pushed himself to do the trek back, stopping to crouch down and recuperate when his heart condition got worse.
After making it to his mobile he called for an ambulance, but was told there would be a 90 minute wait before one could reach him.
He continued: “So my wife, Ceri, came down, drove me to hospital and from then on I was in the hands of the NHS. They were superb.
“The doctors were as mystified as I am. I’m not overweight, I’ve never smoked, I’m a social drinker.
“So it must have been some kind of fault that was in me anyway – but then why didn’t it manifest itself earlier? I just don’t know.”
After having a stent fitted, the Springwatch presenter started filming a new series for BBC Wales.
But while about to drive to a shoot location, Iolo suffered another collapse.
He shared: “We were about to go in to film and I got in a car, in the passenger seat and all of a sudden I just couldn’t put the seatbelt on.
“I couldn’t understand why. The driver was asking what’s the matter and I couldn’t communicate. So they rushed me to hospital 10 minutes away and injected some high-level aspirin in liquid form.”
He was left unable to speak for days after the health battle, which doctors say was caused by a clot in his bloodstream.
He opened up about the frightening ordeal, saying: “It went around my body for six weeks and then it jammed in a blood vessel in my medulla oblongata – the left-hand side of the base of my brain. The left-hand side operates the right-hand side of your body so I was paralysed.
“But luckily, the NHS jumped into action again and in probably a couple of hours the use of my right arm, right leg had come back. Speech took probably the best part of four or five days to come fully back but there were no long-term ill-effect whatsoever.
“When the embolism struck, there was nothing I could do. It was an out-of-body experience in a way. I could hear everything, I could see everything that was going on, I knew I was in good hands but I just couldn’t communicate so it wasn’t scary.
“But for my family, it was – and for the people working with me, I realise it must have been scary for them. But I’ve always said if anything bad happens, I’d rather it happened to me than anyone close to me.”
