Chris Jericho Reveals He Was Hospitalised With Pulmonary Embolism In Late 2021

Back in late 2021, it emerged that Chris Jericho had been hospitalised in the United Kingdom while on tour with his band Fozzy, with Tony Khan later revealing that Jericho suffered a blood clot that resulted in him being admitted to hospital.

The former AEW World Champion has detailed his health issues on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho and the 51-year-old revealed he was hospitalised with a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the lungs. 

"I did have what is called a pulmonary embolism. Back on December 7th, I believe, of 2021. I found this out when I was in London, England. I've been waiting a while to tell the story. I kind of wanted to wait until some things were settled and figure it out, and make sure that everything is back to where it needs to be, and is back to the new normal. Pulmonary embolism basically means blood clots in your lungs, and that's what I had, a whole bunch of them, which are now pretty much gone. All of them are gone, which is great to hear," Jericho said. 

Jericho revealed he started to realise something was wrong at a Fozzy show in Newcastle upon Tyne as he was winded while singing, which had never happened before. The Painmaker continued to be winded while performing on stage as the tour progressed but the issue became progressively worse to the point that he was struggling to breathe while performing in Chester and Bournemouth. 

Following those shows, Jericho decided to go and see a doctor and he was taken straight to the hospital in London as the GP realised he had blood clots. 

"So I got to the hospital and I can barely walk. I mean walking across the lobby to get to the car to go to the hospital was a real task. It was terrifying. Like after three steps, I was just huffing and puffing and my heart was pounding. You know something is really, really wrong here. Then the walk from that car to the hospital, same thing. It might as well have been 1000 miles when it was 100 feet, if it was even 50 feet," Jericho continued.

"The doctor said, 'You have a pulmonary embolism. It means that your lungs are filled with blood clots, and you are now staying in the hospital.' They did an ultrasound and found that there was evidence of a clot in my throat. Now if a clot gets in your throat, that's getting into stroke territory. The reason why these are so dangerous is if the blood clot breaks free and gets into your lungs you can have some serious issues. If it breaks free and gets into your heart, you can have serious issues. If it breaks free and gets into your brain, you can have serious issues. So they gave me a blood thinner.

"Now my oxygen level is still going down. Now they put me on oxygen. So finally, the doctor comes again and says now the blood clots are going down. He also tells me, 'You can't fly home until we make sure that your oxygen level is high enough. We know that the blood thinners are working for the clots, but you have to make sure that you can breathe properly. So let's stay here.' I think that was on a Monday. 'Let's wait until Wednesday, come back, and we'll see where you're at,'" he added.

Jericho was cleared to go back to Tampa, Florida, where he was told he had to lose visceral fat.

"When I went in there, I was 241 pounds. Now looking back, was I too big? Absolutely. Was I overweight? I guess, but never ever out of shape cardio-wise. No, I never was blowing up or anything like that. But I gained some weight after I worked with Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome. I was going through a Bruiser Brody phase, and I thought, well, I can be bigger than all these Japanese guys just because of the way things are now. I'm one of the taller guys. Everyone's a little bit smaller. The Japanese appreciate the bulkier physiques. So let me just get a little bit bigger and just beat the cr*p out of them, which is what I did. It worked out to the point where I had three Tokyo Dome main events. I just never lost weight. Then the pandemic comes and you know, you just don't even realise it. So I went to the medical weight loss clinic and followed the diet. I wanted to lose 10 pounds. I lost 11 in the first week, and I thought, well, let me just stick with this and see how it goes. I currently weigh 209 pounds," Jericho stated. 

Jericho wasn't initially able to wrestle, though, as he was still on blood thinners but The Wizard realised he would be able to perform if he did not take the medication 36 hours before a show, similar to athletes who are on blood thinners in the NBA and NFL. The former AEW World Champion's tests then continued to come back "great" so it became just a matter of time before he returned to the ring. 

It was also confirmed to Jericho that his issue with blood clots could be genetic but it is only a half gene which means he may eventually be able to stop taking blood thinners.

H/T to WrestlingNews.co