Ty Pennington Gives Health Update After Undergoing Emergency Surgery

Ty Pennington is opening up about his terrifying medical emergency over the summer. Months after he was flown to a Denver, Colorado hospital in July to undergo emergency surgery for an abscess in his throat, the Rock the Block host, 59, told Entertainment Tonight that he is doing “great.”

“I’m great,” the HGTV star told the outlet. “You know what’s great is if you almost die, you get so much attention. It feels so nice to be that loved. I’m planning another one… No, I’m kidding!”

Pennington first revealed his hospitalization in July, at the time sharing a photo from his hospital bed as he explained, “Turns out, that sore throat Ive had for the last month was actually an abscess which had grown so large it was closing off my airway.” Opening up about the terrifying ordeal with ET, the Trading Spaces alum said he initially headed to the hospital with the intentions of getting a steroid to help what he believed to be a blockage in his throat, though the blockage turned out to be something much more severe.

“I had this abscess in my throat and I woke up I couldn’t breathe,” he recalled. “I drove down the mountain to the hospital, and I’m just like, ‘Hey, can you give me a steroid to help shrink the swelling?’ And [the doctor] goes, ‘What if it’s more than that? What if you close up and can’t breathe?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ He’s like, ‘I think we need to fly you to Denver.’ And I wake up and I have a tube in my throat.”

Pennington said the “very dramtic” near-death experience helped put things into perspective for him. And made him “realize you just don’t know when your timecard’s gonna get pulled, so wake up, live every single day to the fullest.” Approaching his 60th birthday, he added, “That’s why the 60s is gonna be like time to start doing everything and that’s what I love about being part of these projects because I think we all want to make sure we’ve done things to be remembered.”

Now recovered, Pennington is ready to bring fans even more renovations when Rock the Block, the popular series he hosts, returns for Season 5 on March 5. Teasing the upcoming episodes, the host shared, “I think this season could be the greatest season ever because there’s so much at stake because this is about pride and saying, ‘I am a winner.’ And when you’ve got four teams that are trying to prove themselves, there is nothing they’re gonna hold back, and that’s the kind of design, that’s the kind of passion I love to see.”