Ray Romano undergoes procedure to prevent 'widowmaker' heart attack

Ray Romano had a stent put into one of his arteries because it was 90 per cent blocked.

During an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, the Everybody Loves Raymond star revealed his doctor recently told him he was at risk of a "widowmaker" heart attack due to a 90 per cent blocked artery in his heart.

Describing himself as "lucky" that he discovered the issue, Ray recalled undergoing a procedure to lower his risk of a heart attack. He said, "I had to have a stent put in. I got kinda lucky that we found it before having a heart attack."

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, a stent placement for the heart "is a tiny, expandable metal mesh coil" which "is put into the newly opened area of the artery to help keep the artery from narrowing or closing".

Ray also revealed he was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. The comedian and actor had not been on cholesterol medication until recently, and he admitted, "If I could go back 20 years, I would have gone on the meds."

Previously, Ray told Entertainment Tonight that he first went to see a cardiologist when he started getting chest pains from directing and acting in the 2022 film Somewhere in Queens.

"I called my agent at one in the morning because I couldn't sleep, I go, 'I can't do it, can't do this,'" he shared. "Because - I'm not joking - I had to go to my cardiologist in New York and get on the treadmill and do a stress test because I was getting chest pains."