Randy Couture on Not Realizing He’d Suffered a Heart Attack, Says He’s Lucky He Went Into the Hospital

Randy Couture discussed his recent heart attack on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. Couture suffered a heart attack in late October and recalled that he didn’t realize it until later in the day. Highlights are below, along with the full video.

On having his heart attack: “It was a very weird day. On Tuesday I was on a horse finishing up a western with Michael Jai White. And went into the gym on Wednesday, had a day off and was getting a training session in, felt great. Near the end of the training session, I started to feel like crap, and I’m like, ‘Man, it hasn’t been that long, it’s only been a week.’ Pretty normal session of block instruction and stuff that we do at Unbreakable. And I thought, ‘Man, I popped a rib, I’ve got this weird radiating ache in my chest and it won’t go away.’ I tried to roll it out on the foam roller, and my back popped but nothing changed. Took a recovery drink at Unbreakable and immediately had to go to the trash can and throw it up, and I immediately knew that something wasn’t right.”

On walking himself into the hospital: “So I walked over to the emergency room, they got me in very quickly. Hooked me up to an EKG and then all hell broke loose. [laughs] They’re like, ‘Dude, you’re having a heart attack.’ And they rushed me right up stairs to the cath lab; went in through my wrist. And my thick blood had created a giant clot in my main artery – the ‘widowmaker,’ of course. I had a plaque rupture and the blood goes like it would with any wound to heal that wound. My blood is so thick it created a clot that occluded the whole artery.”

On how close it was: “I was lucky I came in when I came in. If I had waited another 30 or 40 minutes, it would’ve been a different outcome … To have a heart attack was strange. It just chips away at your identity a little bit. Who you are. Who you thought you were. I’m certainly happy to be back up and running. I’m feeling a lot more normal. A lot more like myself.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.