Benny Hinn Did Not Have a Heart Attack

On March 25, Steve Strang interviewed Benny Hinn and his daughter Jessica Hinn-Koulianos regarding his recovery after being rushed to the emergency room on March 20. Here is an edited transcript of that exclusive interview.

Strang: Tell me what happened to your heart.  

Hinn: My heart was in AFib for months. (That’s what the doctor said.) When a heart is doing 200 beats a minute or close to it, it stops giving oxygen. You’re not getting your blood going where it should go. So, slowly, over five days my organs were filling up with fluid. I was basically losing function in my organs. And my heart, my lungs were filling up with fluid. So when I came back from Brazil, not realizing it, I was basically drowning in my own fluid.

Eating became a very scary challenge because even eating, my strength was not there. I was fatigued. It was really frightening. But, you know, finally my daughter came and said, “You’re going to the doctor now.” That was on Friday. We found the top specialist here in Orange County and he looked at me, not even five minutes and he put me in the ambulance. He didn’t even talk. He just said, “You’re going now.”

So they rushed me in on Friday. I was so full of fluid that I was actually dying without realizing it. And I could (have), there was a lot of activity around me. One nurse, for example, was trying to talk to another and she screamed back at her, “I’m trying to save his life.” And I thought they were talking about someone else. I didn’t realize this was all about me.

So then, they put me immediately in ICU and began a work and began to drain me out of all these fluids, kidneys, liver, the lungs. And they had to bring my heart under control because it was in AFib, Atrial Fib. And they tried tests, you name it, to me. I’ve been exhausted with tests. You think about it, they did it.

So today is the first day that the sun is shining again somewhat. It will shine more I’m sure later, but … And then they told me that I have an enlarged heart because of the, well they weren’t sure at first if it was the AFib or something other was causing it. So when I asked how enlarged was it, he said, “Significantly.” So it was scary. That was day before yesterday.

So they, of course, began to treat the heart immediately, brought the AFib under control and when the AFib came under control, the medication and naturally they used other meds to flush me out. It took about four days before the liquids were almost (normal), only yesterday, I think, they told me. They said yesterday my liquids were normal, or I don’t have any liquids in my lungs, I have no liquids in any other organs. And so now, what they have to do, and this morning they shocked me. They did it (a couple of days ago) but it didn’t work and the doctor said (it was) because my heart was too weak.

Strang: So is this like shocking your heart after someone has a heart attack?

Hinn: No. They were not shocking because I was dying. They were trying to shock my heart back into rhythm. What they do is they can shock the heart back, or they try to shock it back into rhythm. If that doesn’t work then they put you on medication for a period and then you can choose to do what is called ablation. Ablation. Basically, they go in and they burn the cells in my heart that are causing the rapid heart rate. So today, they came in at 8:00 and they shocked me again and, thank God, it helped. It took. So I have been in normal rhythm now for two and a half hours.

Strang: Explain about a heart attack, because The Christian Post online reported that you had a heart attack.

Hinn: No. I had no heart attack. Absolutely. That’s false. I asked the doctor myself. Yesterday they took me in. They put that thing inside my body, you know, angiogram and they took pictures. And they put me in a big tube and all that, day before that and said they didn’t see any sign of a heart attack or such things—no blockage. But they wanted to absolutely make sure, so yesterday they took me down and they put this thing from my leg up and they took, whatever. I don’t know how they do it. But afterward, they told me, in no uncertain terms, that I have had no heart attack. My arteries are absolutely clean. There’s no heart disease whatsoever. And I am, my heart itself is extremely healthy. My heart is weak but there’s no heart disease. I’m 63 years old and I hardly have any plaque in my heart, so it’s a healthy heart, thank God.

Strang: So if that’s the case, why was it so bad that the nurse was saying they were trying to save your life?

Hinn: OK because, see, when I came in, my heart had been in irregular rhythm for so long that I was basically drowning because of the fluid. My heart was not able to get blood into certain parts of the body properly and get oxygen where I needed properly. I would love for you to talk to one of the doctors. Here’s one of them coming in right now.

Strang: It’s official. No heart attack.

Hinn: No, never. But you know, the news media will say what they want to say to create some kind of drama, but absolutely no heart attack, thank God. My heart is beating now regularly. They did not put me on medication and they want to keep it that way and God knows what the future holds, but the good thing is I have a healthy heart and we just want to make sure the AF is under control and doesn’t come back. That’s all.

Note:  Then I talked to Jessica Hinn-Koulianos and said that the doctor confirmed that it was not a heart attack.  

Jessica:  It really wasn’t. I’m telling you, I don’t lie. It was not a heart attack and they confirmed it with many tests to make sure. You can have silent heart attacks, so that’s not a lie, but that’s why they confirmed it and they said no, that was not the case. The arteries look good. Everything, even the enlarged heart. They’re ruling out everything, so yesterday they did that test to make sure the arteries aren’t clogged, and they said that’s not the reason.  

All the doctors have reasoned that it was the enlarged heart—that the heart was weak. The reason for the fluid is all related to the AF. He’s been in AF probably for a month or two, so his heart was running a marathon and he had no idea. He thought he was tired and he was exhausted from Brazil, and when you do that your body starts to shut down, so getting him here and controlling that rhythm, that changed everything. Now his organs are all normal. The fluid is gone. The heart will go back to normal size within time and it will get stronger every day and the fact that what they did today.

It does sound scary, but it’s nothing less than when they bring you back to life. It’s very miniscule amounts of shock. It didn’t work the other day, which showed that his heart was weak and we got a little more concerned, but it worked today. The doctor said that’s a sign that his heart is getting stronger.  

Everything’s getting better and it’s a very good sign that it did work. So today’s a good day. We turned a corner and even the doctor said we’re out of the critical stage now. We’re turning a corner. They’re going to send him home to rest. Today was a good day. It’s my birthday and it’s all I wanted for my birthday, and I told him God answered all our prayers and he wanted me to tell you because the prayers of people are working. Every day he’s getting stronger and today’s the best day yet. Great day yesterday with no clogged arteries, that was a great report and then today with the heart, it took and we didn’t even know if it would—and it might not have, but it did.