Susan Lucci says she’s feeling “good” at age 77, nearly six years after a health emergency that almost killed her.
“I’m in very good shape and I feel very good. I had a blockage, a 90 percent blockage in my main artery and a 75 percent blockage in the adjacent artery. And fortunately, I listened to my body and there was someone there [her doctor] who could prod me to go to the hospital,” Lucci told ET in an article published on July 8.
“Had I not gone there, I was told the next day when I was checked out that I 99.9 percent would’ve had the widow-maker. If I had laid down, I never would have gotten up. I was doing what many women do, I kept thinking, ‘Oh it’ll go away, it’s nothing, it’ll go away,'” she added.
That was in 2018, and it was just the beginning of several years of managing severe heart health issues for the actor, best known for her role as Erica Kane on the soap opera “All My Children” from 1970 to 2011.
Susan Lucci Has 3 Stents in Her Coronary Arteries
Lucci underwent two heart surgeries after first experiencing symptoms of a heart attack in October 2018, ET reported in July 2019.
“I had some mild pressure on my chest last October a couple of times and it went away, and because I’ve never had a health issue I thought it was nothing,” Lucci told the outlet. “And then the third time it happened, I was shopping for a birthday present for a girlfriend in a boutique and it was overwhelming. It felt like an elephant pressing on my chest.”
The boutique manager also had a nursing degree and, recognizing the symptoms, got Lucci to the hospital, the actor told ET at the time. A cardiologist determined she needed two stents placed in her arteries, she told People in February 2023.
Three months after the first incident, Lucci had a different round of symptoms that landed her back in the hospital. She recalled feeling chest discomfort, jaw pain and shortness of breath, according to People. Lucci had another surgery and needed another stent.
A stent is a “tiny, expandable metal mesh coil. It’s put into the newly opened area of the artery to help keep the artery from narrowing or closing again,” according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
“It turns out, I had a 90 percent blockage in my main artery and a 75 percent blockage in an adjacent artery, and so they told me the next day, ‘You just avoided a widow-maker.’ I didn’t know! I had no idea,” she told ET in 2019.
Susan Lucci Has Become an Advocate for Women’s Heart Health
Since experiencing her own heart health emergencies, Lucci has become an advocate for raising awareness for women’s heart health.
In October 2023, she spoke at an event for the American Heart Association. She shared a post about the event on Instagram with the hashtag “#putyourselfonyourto-dolist.”
“My takeaway was — is to tell women to put yourself on your to-do list, to listen to your body and if it doesn’t behave the way that’s normal for you, take action. The doctor will not be mad at you for coming if there’s nothing there,” she told ET in July 2024.
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