Bishop T.D. Jakes is opening up about a life-threatening medical crisis he experienced last year, disclosing that he suffered a severe heart attack while preaching—one he didn’t even recognize as it happened.
That’s why they call it the silent killer. It comes and we never know until it happens.
During a recent interview with TODAY (March 26), Jakes shared, “The reason I didn’t realize it was because I had none of the symptoms that they say. 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.”
What’s more, he continued, “[The doctor] said five minutes later, I’d have been dead on arrival. The right side of my heart had completely stopped getting blood at all.”
The incident occurred on November 23, 2024, while the 67-year-old pastor was delivering a sermon at The Potter’s House in Dallas. Video footage from the moment shows him pausing mid-message, visibly unsteady, before lowering his microphone as church staff rushed to assist.
Jakes explained that while he felt normal while preaching, the adrenaline from being onstage masked the severity of his condition. It wasn’t until he sat down that the full impact of the heart attack took hold.
“It exposed the fact that I was preaching with half of my heart closed through a clot. And they had to go get it,” he revealed.
Reflecting on the footage afterward, Jakes admitted it was difficult to watch. “In my mind, I was in a quiet, peaceful, serene, white-enveloped, cloud-enveloped space. I was on my way out,” he said. “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.”