Jeremy Clarkson has had an urgent heart operation after a ‘sudden deterioration’ in his health.

The 64-year-old former Top Gear host was ‘maybe’ days away from death when he underwent two hour surgery with Clarkson admitting: ‘Crikey, that was close.’

He started to feel unwell after swimming in the Indian Ocean while on a ‘small island’ on holiday and later found it difficult to climb a flight of stairs.

Clarkson returned to Britain and a ‘sudden deterioration began to gather pace’ with him feeling ‘clammy’, ‘tightness in my chest’, and ‘pins and needles in my left arm’.

Alex Salmond‘s recent tragic death from a massive heart attack had sparked the motoring journalist to see his GP.

It comes as the star posted on Instagram today that his dog had also gone under the knife this week in what he referred to as a ‘s**t week’.

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Jeremy Clarkson has had an urgent heart operation after a ‘sudden deterioration’ in his health. Clarkson in an Instagram post just two days ago with what seemed to be a surgical plaster on his wrist

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The 64-year-old former Top Gear host started to feel unwell after going for a swim in the Indian Ocean while on holiday and later found it difficult to climb a flight of stairs.

Clarkson’s Farm: Emotional moments from season three of Amazon hit

The worrying health update comes just two days after Clarkson appeared on a post on his Instagram account with what seemed to be a white surgical plaster on his wrist.

Clarkson wrote in his column in The Sunday Times how he felt ‘mostly dead’ after returning to the beach after a short swim.

He spent the rest of his break on a tropical island eating cheese and drinking wine.

It was only when he returned to Britain and he was loading 30 pigs onto a ‘slaughterhouse school bus’ that he noticed pins and needles in his left arm.

He then went to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford via an ambulance, where a heart attack was ruled out after he had an electrocardiogram (ECG), blood tests and X-rays.

He said he then went to an ‘operating theatre’ on Wednesday, after further checks, and doctors said he was perhaps ‘days away’ from death.

Once there he was fitted with a stent to his hold his arteries open, to improve blood flow to his heart and relieve his chest pain.

A stent is a wire mesh tube that props open arteries. To open the narrowed artery, the surgeon may perform what’s known as an angioplasty.

This involves making a small incision in a patient’s arm or leg, through which a wire with an attached deflated balloon is thread through up to the coronary arteries

Describing what he called the ‘wearisome effects of growing old’, Clarkson said: ‘It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way.’

He said a stent, which can save lives and stop future heart attacks through improving blood flow to the heart, was fitted in around two hours.

The motoring journalist said: ‘It wasn’t especially painful. Just odd,’ and added that he has been thinking: ‘Crikey, that was close.’

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Clarkson posted a video on Instagram this week about the books he read while on his recent holiday and said none were as good as his Diddly Squat Home to Roost

Paws for thought! Jeremy Clarkson greets dog at new pub

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Clarkson posted on Instagram today that his dog had also gone under the knife this week, suffering from pyometra, in what he referred to as a ‘s**t week’

Jeremy Clarkson presenting BBC’s Top Gear over the years

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Clarkson said: ‘It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way’

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Clarkson concluded saying he was ‘wondering what water tastes like and if it’s possible to make celery interesting’ following the health scare, as he seemed to consider lessening his meat intake.

Fans were left concerned two days ago when the veteran TV presenter appeared in a post on Instagram wearing what appeared to be a surgical plaster.

One asked ‘how’d you hurt your wrist, Jezza?’ while another thought the ‘wrist injury is worrying’.

Clarkson nine days ago shared exotic snaps on Instagram of ‘nine sunsets from an amazing holiday’ showing waves crashing against a sun-kissed sandy beach.

Today, Clarkson revealed his pet pooch was in surgery have contracted pyometra.

Pyometra is a potentially life-threatening infection of the uterus that causes it to fill with bacteria and pus. Dogs with a pyometra have vaginal discharge and can feel sick, have a poor appetite, lethargy, vomiting and sometimes increased thirst.

Clarkson has previously revealed he had to quit smoking after contracting pneumonia on holiday in Spain.

Last month Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May left their show The Grand Tour behind on Prime Video.

Clarkson has continued to present Clarkson’s Farm, which covers him running his Oxfordshire farm, on Prime Video, as well as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on ITV.

He recently opened a pub, called The Farmer’s Dog, in Asthall, near Burford, close to where he lives near Chipping Norton.

Former Scottish First Minister Salmond died from a ‘massive heart attack’ earlier this month in North Macedonia, aged 69.

He had made a speech at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy Forum in the city of Ohrid before collapsing in the crowded room after suffering a heart attack.

Mark Donfried, the director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, said attendees were having lunch when Mr Salmond died.

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Alex Salmond’s recent tragic death from a massive heart attack had sparked the motoring journalist to go see his GP (pictured here in 2011)

Salmond’s coffin arrives in Scotland on plane draped in the Saltire

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Mr Salmond can be seen smiling cheerfully in the center of what is believed to be his last photo alongside his Alba Party chair Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who is wearing a tartan dress

‘Time stopped’: Conference organiser who witnessed Salmond collapse

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Conservative MP David Davis, right, was a close friend of Mr Salmond

‘He came together with Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, also from the Alba Party in Scotland, and they were eating,’ he told Times Radio.

Tasmina was allegedly having trouble opening a ketchup bottle when she asked Mr Salmond for a hand. As he was helping her, ‘he fell back on his chair, totally out of the blue’, Mr Donfried said.

A post-mortem examination ruled that the former first minister of Scotland suffered a ‘massive heart attack’.

Aides reported Mr Salmond had been complaining about pains in his right leg on the morning of his death.

WHAT IS A STENT? AND WHY WOULD A PATIENT GET MORE THAN ONE AT A TIME?

by Mia de Graaf, US Health Editor

Stents hold arteries open to help improve blood flow to the heart and relieve chest pain.

Past president of the American Heart Association, Dr Sidney Smith, MD, told DailyMail.com how stents work and when they are placed.

HOW IS THE PROCEDURE PERFORMED?

A stent is a wire mesh tube that props open arteries.

To open the narrowed artery, the surgeon may perform what’s known as an angioplasty.

It involves making a small incision in a patient’s arm or leg, through which a wire with an attached deflated balloon is thread through up to the coronary arteries.

In some cases, this is all that’s needed to break up the blockage, without putting any permanent artery-openers in place.

Surgeons will sometimes put in a stent, however, to keep the arteries held open.

The stent surrounds the balloon and expands with it when it is inflated.

After the balloon has been deflated and removed, the stent stays in the artery permanently.

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A stent is a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery during an angioplasty. Once the balloon is removed, the stent remains to keep the artery open

HOW COMMON IS IT?

Angioplasties are increasingly common in the United States and Mexico due to rising rates of heart issues.

And stents are becoming increasingly common in angioplasty patients, since it is very common for the arteries to narrow again if nothing is put in place (this is known as restenosis, and happens in about a third of cases).

CAN IT BE PERFORMED DAYS OR WEEKS AFTER A HEART ATTACK?

There are two kinds of blockages: a STEMI (which is a complete blockage) and an NSTEMI (a partial blockage).

STEMI stands for ‘ST-elevation myocardial infarction’, which means the patient has suffered cardiac enzyme changes, and changes to their electrical heart activity, as seen on an EKG scan.

A non-STEMI heart attack, or NSTEMI heart attack, is less urgent. It means they suffered enzyme changes but no changes on their EKG.

‘A STEMI is a very big, severe heart attack where a patient comes into the emergency room and the artery is totally blocked, and needs to be opened up straight away and the stent is placed,’ Dr Smith, Professor of Medicine, Cardiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, explained.

‘That’s the patient that goes direct into surgery.’

‘In other cases, the patient may have a non-STEMI. They may have chest pain, and they come into the hospital with enzyme changes but no changes on their EKG [electrical activity of the heart]. The need is not urgent. Stents are placed but it can be days later.’

WHY WOULD A PATIENT GET MORE THAN ONE STENT AT A TIME?

It depends how many blockages they had, or how many vessels were affected.

‘The decision to place stents in the coronary arteries is based on the number of significant blockages that’s there,’ Dr Smith explained.

‘Three is not out of the ordinary. Sometimes you place just one, sometimes two or three – it completely depends.

‘You place stents where there is a significant blockage. It could be that there were two or three vessels involved, or three blockages in one vessel. That would warrant three stents.’

He adds that the amount of blockages has nothing to do with the severity of the heart attack, or whether it would be a STEMI or NSTEMI.

HOW IS THE RECOVERY?

For patients being treated for chest pain, most are usually able to go home the same day of the operation. Patients are often advised to avoid strenuous activities and driving for at least a week.

But Dr Smith said it depends on each patient, and particularly on whether they have other underlying health issues.

‘It depends on how well their heart is pumping,’ Dr Smith said.

‘Patients are often able to go home within 24 hours, usually into cardiac rehabilitation.’

As for the patient taking a trans-Atlantic flight, Dr Smith said that would have to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

‘It depends on how they’re doing, and how long the flight is,’ he said.

Any reader who thinks they may be suffering a heart attack, or may have suffered one, should never diagnose themselves. Always call 911 if you think you might be having a heart attack. The EMS crew in your ambulance will route you to the right hospital based on your location

Everything you need to know about the heart stent procedure