Erin Andrews teared up while recalling a frightening family emergency where her father was hospitalized.
“I didn’t discuss this at the time, but over Christmas … it was just hellacious and horrible — but it ended up having a great ending. My dad had a heart attack in Montana with us, and it was awful,” Andrews, 47, said during the Thursday, April 9, episode of her “Calm Down” podcast with Charissa Thompson. “And it was right in front of us. I’m very proud of my sister, my mom, [husband] Jarret and I for springing into crazy-town action [and] getting paramedics. My dad was life-flighted to another hospital. It was a lot.”
Andrews continued, “It was a lot, and I was at the time just beyond grateful for the care my dad received — from the firefighters and the helicopter to the people in Bozeman hospital who took care of him. So, it’s been a lot for us the last three months.”
The sportscaster said her dad experienced another health scare recently when he was hospitalized for heart attack symptoms.
“Our PTSD was tested again when my son FaceTimed my father the other day and he answered from a hospital bed in Tampa,” Andrews explained. “My entire body seized up.”
Thankfully, Andrews’ dad “didn’t have another heart attack” but just experienced the symptoms.
“So, for four or five days our family was just wrecked, like, ‘Oh, my God, this poor man can’t catch a break,’” she continued. “The moral of the story is, thank God my dad is alive, but my dad is alive because of these healthcare workers, and I just feel like they are people that don’t get as much credit as they deserve.”
Andrews got emotional as she added, “My dad takes care of himself so much, and like, he does such a good job. And I feel so bad. He needs a break. Cardiovascular disease is so f***ing horrible.”
Andrews said she and her sister, Kendra, are planning to “get checked [out]” because cardiovascular disease is hereditary.
Thompson, 43, also revealed on the podcast that her paternal grandmother died this past week.
“My grandma passed away. And it was while I was there with my dad, and my dad got the phone call that his mom had passed away,” she explained. “And I feel, I’m not going to cry about it, but it’s like, I feel grateful that I’m 44 years old.”
Thompson continued, “But that’s my last grandparent that was alive. And anyways, my point in all of this is, having a patient advocate, having someone that’s there for you [is important]. And if you can’t be there, the extension of the nurses or the doctors and all that.”
