(RNS) — Bishop T.D. Jakes has disclosed that the medical incident that occurred as he spoke before his Dallas megachurch in November was a “massive 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 said on NBC’s “Today” show in an exclusive interview on Wednesday (March 26).
Jakes, 67, who also is an author and business executive, suffered what his church initially called “a slight health incident” at The Potter’s House during the Nov. 24 worship service. On that occasion, about a dozen people rushed to his side after he lowered his microphone and was shaking in his seat.
“The reason I didn’t realize it was because I had none of the symptoms that they say,” Jakes said in the interview about the heart attack with “Today” co-anchor Craig Melvin, adding that the doctor said he would have been dead on arrival had he reached the hospital five minutes later.
“The right side of my heart had completely stopped getting blood at all.”
Jakes’ lawyers filed a defamation suit on his behalf the day after the incident, saying Pennsylvania minister Duane Youngblood had falsely accused him of attempted sexual assault. The suit, which linked the accusations to Jakes’ health, was later followed by additional sexual misconduct allegations by another minister, the Rev. Richard Edwin Youngblood, the brother of the first accuser.
Jakes spoke about the case during the “Today” interview, describing Duane Youngblood as someone who has been “arrested as a child predator twice and convicted” and who is seeking to have the defamation suit dismissed.
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“We’re living in a time of misinformation and disinformation that’s hard to live with,” Jakes said. “Some people don’t see you as an individual. They see you as an opportunity.”
He added that he likewise felt it necessary for his legal team to ask a federal court to subpoena Google to reveal who posted videos about Jakes on YouTube that were generated by artificial intelligence.
“Killing people’s character has become a business,” he told Melvin.
Jakes, who a recent survey listed as the second most popular choice in 2019-2020 that Black Protestant leaders would like to invite to speak to their congregations (after Barack and/or Michelle Obama), appeared ready to move forward with upcoming events and projects. He is scheduled to interview Oprah Winfrey at his 2025 Good Soil Forum on entrepreneurialism in June.
Melvin asked Jakes if he recalled having a near-death experience in November.
“In my mind, I was in a quiet, peaceful, serene, white-enveloped, cloud-enveloped space,” Jakes responded. “I was on my way out. And it was — afterwards in retrospect, it was such a privilege to stand on the other side, to get a little glimpse of what that might be like or at least what it was like in that moment for me. I think it was absolutely amazing.”
Jakes also reiterated his appreciation for the prayers of people in and beyond his congregation.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank them,” he said.
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