WWE executive Paul Levesque (Triple H) has provided an update on his health and future after undergoing a “cardiac event” in late 2021.
The 14-time World Champion spoke with Stephen A. Smith for ESPN this week. A portion of the conversation aired on Friday’s episode of First Take.
Triple H said, “I had a viral pneumonia. My lungs were inflamed, as the next couple of days went on, it got increasingly worse, and my wife saw some blood and stuff that I was coughing up. I went and got checked, and it was coming from the viral pneumonia, but I had fluid in my lungs, fluid around my heart.”
Doctors performed a thorough examination, including an EKG. Ejection fraction is the way your heart pumps blood and 55-60 is considered a healthy range. Triple H was down to 30.
“I got a quick text message saying “Don’t take time, pack your bag and head to the emergency room… by the time i got to the emergency room, my ejection fraction got down to about 22, which… I was in heart failure, bad. By the next morning, they figured that out, by the time I was going in to get a heart catheter my ejection was down to 12. I was nose diving and sort of at the 1-yard line of.. where you don’t want to be, for your family and your future.”
As a family man, Triple H got emotional talking about his medical emergency.
“Let me tell you, its 99% .. it gets real, we have three young girls, 15, 13 and 11. Suddenly I come home, I’m a little bit sick, and their dad who is strong, always, suddenly is in the hospital. I don’t know if they understood the consequences of it, but there’s moments in there where .. when they’re putting you out for stuff and you think, ‘Is this it? Do you wake up from this?’ That’s tough to swallow and makes you think differently… it makes you think differently about life. It doesn’t make you any less driven for the things that you do, but it certainly makes you appreciate the things that you have more, your friends, your family.”
Triple H then confirmed he will never wrestle again because he had a defibrillator pacemaker installed in his chest.
“For me, as far as in-ring, which I get a lot, I’m done. I will never wrestle again. I have a defibrillator in my chest, which .. It’s probably not a good idea for me to get zapped on life tv.”
Stephen A. Smith’s full interview with Triple H premieres Friday night on Stephen A’s World, which streams on ESPN+.
