Montel Williams Hospitalized For 21 Days Following Stroke: ‘I Almost Died’

Montel Williams is sharing the details surrounding his hospitalization following a hemorrhagic stroke earlier this year. 

Williams told The Blast that he spent 21 days in the hospital, and nine of those days were spent in UCI. The stroke occurred during a workout in New York. 

“I had what they call a hemorrhagic stroke,” Williams explains. 

Though hemorrhagic strokes only account for 15 percent of all strokes, they are responsible for almost 40 percent of all stroke deaths, according to the National Stroke Association.

Williams said he “almost died” as a result, “I’m lucky to be alive.” He says he was doing dumbbell squats in a hotel when heard a “loud pop” on his left side. 

“I knew something was majorly wrong, so I forced myself to get to my room on the 14th floor and called my wife. I told her that I may be having a stroke, so please call 911. She did the rest.”

Luckily, special emergency professionals arrived quickly and did a CAT scan on the street in front of the hotel. If Williams did not receive medical attention so quickly he may have died before medics could even arrive. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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“I give all the credit to my wife,” Montel Williams says. “She laid on the bed with me for all 21 days, sleeping at the hospital and staying there 18 hours a day.” 

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“The only thing I remember for the first five days of the ICU is her saying. ‘I love you,” he adds. 

Montel says he has nearly fully recovered and while he is still on some medication, he is being weaned off of it and feels great. Williams says the incident was “a wake-up call to go 100 percent, instead of the 300 percent I was working at.”