Montel Williams Opens Up About Surviving A Stroke: "I'm Very Lucky"

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Montel Williams Reveals He Suffered A Stroke

Just before summer hit, Montel Williams was hospitalized for an undisclosed medical emergency. Now, the OG talk show host says he was actually fighting for his life.

In an interview with PEOPLE, Williams revealed that he was in the intensive care unit for 21 days after suffering from a cerebellar hemorrhagic stroke during his stay at the New York City hotel in May. According to the site, experts say that kind of stroke “can either kill or cause severe neurologic deficits in 50 percent of patients.

“I’m very lucky,” Williams says. “When it happened, I didn’t realize the veracity of what this was. When you start thinking about it those statistics? That’s harsh reality. … I’m so blessed to be alive and I’m not taking it for granted.”

Apparently, a normal day of working out at the gym suddenly turned into a nightmare:

“A vet of the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, Williams says he is a competitive person by nature and had grown accustomed to doing intense daily workouts. That morning was no different: 20 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on an elliptical, and 40 minutes of doing ‘giant sets’ — an advanced weight training technique designed to increase muscle strength that involves doing large sets of three exercises per muscle group, in rapid repetition with little rest in-between reps.”

“But while holding his breath and coming up from weighted squats, his thirteenth of a rep of 30, Williams heard what he thought was a loud noise coming from behind him. ‘I knew there was nobody there and so I looked to my left,’ he recalls. ‘And as my eyes came back around, the whole room started to kaleidoscope and I got hit with the wave of tired.'”

“I threw the weight down and said to myself, ‘You just had a stroke.'”

Thanks to watching The Dr. Oz Show, Williams recognized his symptoms and knew he had to get up. He was able to make it from the gym, to the elevator, to the 14th floor where his wife was. When an ambulance arrived “it happened to be one of three from New York-Presbyterian’s Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit, which came equipped with CAT scan technology. Rescue workers were able to administer the test on site, letting doctors back at the hospital know exactly what was wrong,” PEOPLE states. Williams says it was a miracle that absolutely saved his life.

“This gave me a wake up call in a lot of ways,” Williams said. “I’m use to be one of those overly intense people period. I was flying three flights a week, cross-country, back here, over there, up there, down there, over there. I was always on the phone, managing five businesses — it’s time to just slow it down a little bit, you know?”

Wow, we’re keeping him our prayers. Head over to PEOPLE to read about Williams’ time in rehab.