Celebrity megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes is grateful to be alive after suffering what he described as “a massive heart attack” in November 2024. After revealing that he almost died during the frightening moment, he recalled seeing a “peaceful, serene, white-enveloped, cloud-enveloped space.”
On March 26, the 67-year-old Bishop appeared on TODAY for an interview with Craig Melvin, where he opened up about the frightening health scare he experienced for the first time. While delivering a powerful sermon at The Potter’s House, the Dallas church where he serves as head pastor, on November 24, 2024, Jakes had no idea that the unsettling symptoms he felt—pausing and shaking onstage before lowering his microphone—were actually signs of a heart attack.
“I didn’t really realize what was happening to me onstage until I got to the hospital in an ambulance and fussing that it happened onstage, by the way, because I didn’t want it to happen, and the doctor leaned over my ear and said, ‘You had a massive heart attack,’” Jakes told Melvin on Wednesday’s episode of TODAY.
Jakes Said He Could Have Died If He Waited To Receive Medical Attention
Jakes shared that his diagnosis was unexpected, especially since he didn’t experience any of the typical heart attack symptoms, such as chest pain, intense discomfort radiating to the shoulder, arm, back, neck, or jaw, or severe cold sweats. Thankfully, medical officials were able to rush the Christian pastor to the ICU unit for surgery in the nick of time. If they had waited any longer, Jakes said he may not have survived to tell his story.
“No numbness, no sharp pain, no anything. I just kind of drifted off to sleep. I didn’t know what it was, but I almost died,” the motivational speaker revealed.”(The doctor) said five minutes later, I’d have been dead on arrival,” he continued during his TODAY show appearance. “The right side of my heart had completely stopped getting blood at all.”
While reflecting on the moment he began to shake onstage, Jake explained that he felt fine while he was standing up delivering his sermon, but when he sat down, his heart attack began to exacerbate.
“When I sat down, the adrenaline dropped, and it exposed the fact that I was preaching with half of my heart closed through a clot. And they had to go get it.”
Jakes believes he had a near-death experience that allowed him to come close to God.
“It’s hard for me to look at that video. They had to claw the microphone out of my hand. But in my mind, I was in a quiet, peaceful, serene, white-enveloped, cloud-enveloped space. I was on my way out,” he shared with Melvin. “Afterwards in retrospect, it was such a privilege to stand on the other side, to get a little glimpse of what it might be like, or at least what it was like in that moment for me. I think it was absolutely amazing.”
Prayers up for pastor T.D. Jakes.