Rosie O’Donnell experienced a real miracle last week when she pulled herself out of a heart attack!
The 50-year-old actress is convalescing at home now, still not wholly believing that she is alive. According to her, she owes her survival to the Internet. As soon as she felt symptoms coming on, she did a quick search and took a Bayer aspirin that she had read about in an ad.
On Monday she could already share the news on her blog saying (in her customary Japanese poetry-like form) that she was “saved by a tv commercial” in the most literal meaning. Later on the actress’s rep Cindi Berger confirmed to PEOPLE that O’Donnell has been extremely lucky and is resting at home quietly.
They story goes that she had felt pains assaulting her on August 14 following her helping a very hefty woman get out of a car in Nyack. In a couple of hours she had a pain in her chest, developed clammy skin, and felt sick. Besides, her arms were sore and very sensitive to touch. She thought it might be a heart attack and, though she rather doubted it, searched for “womens heart attack symptoms” in Google. Having found the ad for an aspirin to be taken in case of an attack and decided not to call 911.
The kind of heart attack that she had was the one they call “the Widow Maker,” so her being lucky was not an understatement!
O’Donnell learned that many women who die of heart attacks don’t make the call, and she says it was a “miracle” she hasn’t joined the death list. She urges all the women who experience symptoms to “listen to the voice inside” and take care of themselves by dialing 911.
It also turns out to be that O’Donnell’s coronary artery was almost completely blocked and she had had a stent put in.
The heart attack came in the same month when her fiancée Michelle Rounds was known to have been diagnosed with desmoid tumors.
