“I’ve been feeling a bit poorly, under the weather, for a couple of weeks,” said Mr Roberts, speaking on ITV’s This Morning. “I’ve had a few chest infections over the last few years and I’ve had asthma since childhood, so I’m kind of used to it – that sort of tight chest.” However, this time the warning sign was pointing to something else.
Mr Roberts continued: “As it approached the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, it was starting to get really bad.
“I could hardly walk without really struggling for a breath.
“The confusing thing about this, which is a bit of a red herring, is it gets you on the breathing side of things.
“So you don’t think it is something to do with your heart, you think, ‘Oh, it must be something to do with my chest.’”
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Mr Roberts suffered from a severe health problem called pericardial effusion.
The Mayo Clinic details this can sometimes lead to heart failure or even death if left untreated.
The condition describes a build-up of too much fluid in a sac-like structure that wraps around your heart, known as the pericardium.
While the space between these layers usually packs only a thin layer of fluid, excess fluid can be dangerous.
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He said he understands why people might be reluctant to visit A&E in order to “take the pressure” off the NHS, but stressed it’s important to go.
Mr Roberts continued: “In this instance, really minutes made all the difference because what was happening, basically, there’s a sac around your heart and it is filling with a fluid.
“This sac is basically squeezing the heart that it sits around and the heart isn’t able to expand and therefore it isn’t able to pump.
“So that means all your other organs start failing. By the time they’ve got to me, my kidneys were at 30 percent, my liver was at 30 percent.
“It wasn’t that my lungs weren’t working, it was the fact that my heart wasn’t able to pump, so it wasn’t getting the oxygen.
“At any point, I could have had a heart attack because the heart goes, ‘Forget this, I’ve had enough.’”
Fortunately, the hospital was able to drain the “dark red black” liquid from his chest that Mr Roberts referred to as the “death liquid”.
He felt the effects of this procedure straight away. Now, he’s recovering from this health scare.
“I had a check-up yesterday and things are moving in the right direction,” he added.
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