Homes Under the Hammer's Martin Roberts had 'hours to live' before urgent heart surgery

Martin Roberts, the well-known face from Homes Under the Hammer, has spoken out about his terrifying brush with death, disclosing that doctors gave him a dire warning, "You have hours to live", before he underwent an urgent heart operation.

The 60-year-old television presenter was caught off guard last year when he mistook severe chest pains for long Covid symptoms, only to discover he was actually suffering from pericardial effusion, a dangerous condition where fluid accumulates around the heart.

Martin had to undergo immediate surgery to relieve the pressure on his heart from the swollen sac encasing it.

Recounting the ordeal, he told The Sun: "A year ago, I had a problem with my heart that hadn't been noticed."

"The sac around my heart had expanded and was putting pressure on the heart. I had less than a few hours to live."

"Had I not been in the right place... Three weeks earlier I was on the road in a transit van and if it had happened then, I would be dead."

Previously, Martin had opened up about his harrowing experience during an appearance on ITV's This Morning, where he explained to hosts Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes how he had been plagued by persistent chest pains, which he initially thought were a result of long Covid.

He described his symptoms: "I'd been feeling a bit poorly, under the weather for a couple of weeks.

"I've had a few chest infections over the last few years and I've had asthma since childhood, so I'm used to quite a tight chest."

He revealed: "As it approached the Easter bank holiday weekend, it was starting to get really bad where I could hardly walk without struggling for breath.

"The confusing thing about this, it's a bit of a red herring, is that it gets you in the breathing side of things, so you don't think it's something to do with your heart.

"You think, 'It must be something to do with my chest.' Then it's the dangerous thing of playing Google doctor.

"It looked like it could have been the symptoms for long Covid - real lethargy, a tightness in the chest, pain in the chest, difficulty breathing, so you pause it and pause it and by the time it got to just after the bank holiday weekend, I was starting to be delirious, putting letters the wrong way round.

"I said to Kirsty, 'We've got to go to hospital.'"

Typically, this condition is managed with medication, but in serious instances, surgery is performed to drain the surplus fluid.

Martin disclosed that he required surgical intervention due to the fluid accumulation exerting pressure on his heart, leading to organ failure.

The TV star explained that this health ordeal spurred him to embrace a healthier way of life.

He even joined The Big Celebrity Detox show on E4, in which holistic wizard Sah D'Simone takes eight celebrities through various therapies to render them spiritually cleansed.

An AI tool was used to bring an extra layer to this story.