Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman is opening up about his recent medical scare.
In September, three months after his wife Beth died following a battle with cancer, the Dog’s Most Wanted star, 66, was hospitalized for chest pains.
“I thought I had a heart attack,” he tells PEOPLE Now of the experience. “I’m like, ‘Beth, please quit squeezing my heart, please.’ I thought it was it.”
However, even though he checked into the hospital, he almost walked away before doctors were able to help him.
“I went to the hospital and they were kind of rude so I checked out. Then Dr. Oz came to me and said, ‘What are you doing? You’re crazy. Come back.’ So I did,” he said. “You got to do what Dr. Oz says.”
Two weeks later, Chapman learned he was suffering from a pulmonary embolism — a serious condition in which one or more arteries has been blocked by a blood clot.
“They found on the right lung a blood clot,” he adds. “It was scary.”
The television star, who is now on blood thinners as he continues his road to recovery, went on to share that his health will likely put an end to hunting down bad guys — at least for now.
“I’m supposed to relax and not run down someone,” he tells PEOPLE Now, noting, “I probably couldn’t even because you can feel it.”
As to how he’s doing, the reality star says he just feels “a little tired.”
In an episode of The Dr. Oz Show, which aired last month, Dr. Oz called the TV star a “ticking time bomb.”
“You’re not going to be here with the heart the way it is right now. Fear of death is normal. I’m surprised you don’t fear death when you’re chasing after convicts. But when you run away from doctor, that means you have to do your own doctoring,” he added.
Speaking to PEOPLE after the diagnosis, Dr. Oz said Chapman was “denying care that he knew would be life saving.”
“[Duane] was fearful,” he revealed. “Beth had been his north star. She was the one that would go with him and keep him balanced so he could deal with these things. Losing her took away his biggest support.”
“I hesitated for a minute thinking, I don’t want to have to go through this again,” Chapman previously told PEOPLE. “I don’t want to die right now. I’m not afraid to die anymore, but I really didn’t care for awhile if something would happen. I do care now.”
He added, “Once this goes away, I am 100 percent. I’ve had fears. The blood clot is not a normal thing but it happens a lot, but I’m going to be 100 percent. I’m encouraged by it.”
Dog’s Most Wanted airs Wednesdays (9 p.m. ET) on WGN America.
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