Duck Dynasty star Jep Robertson gave his extended clan quite a scare last month when he suffered a mysterious seizure while on a hunting trip, then had to be hospitalized and even put on life support for four days.
He had to be under sedation and tied down to his bed at the hospital with life-support equipment so as to be treated with antibiotics for a possible infection that triggered the seizure, he told Good Morning America after returning home.
Robertson was on a family deer-hunting trip Oct. 19 when he suddenly collapsed to the ground and suffered a seizure.
“I reached to get my bow, and that’s kind of the last I remember. I crumpled to the ground, and they said that I had a seizure for five minutes,” he told GMA. “I thought I was a goner. Waking up Thursday, I was looking around and asked my wife, Jess, ‘What are we doing in the hospital?’ I had no idea what had happened four days before.”
The 36-year-old is the son of Phil Robertson who is the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family. Jep is also the husband of Jessica and father of their four children.
His family, friends and the avid fans of the A&E hit sent off loads of support and said prayers for the young Robertson. Robertson said he was grateful for their prayer support.
“@JepDuckman prayers to you during this time,” a fan posted on Twitter. “I hope it was an isolated incident.”
“@JepDuckman we love you! We will keep praying!” another fan added.
Jep kidded about his hospitalization and said, “Just like Steven Seagal, I’m ‘hard to kill.'”
“I’m glad to be alive, brother,” Robertson told FOX & Friends.
It is thought possible that a mosquito-borne illness may have caused the life-threatening episode.
Robertson revealed that he “tested kind of positive for meningitis and encephalitis,” saying “a mosquito can do a lot of damage.”
While hunting with his big brother Willie and others, Jep spotted a deer and reached down to grab his bow when he fell unexpectedly and was out for 5 minutes.
“I have no memory,” he said of the frightening incident.
“So Sunday he got put on the ventilator and was completely sedated and until Wednesday he was taken off, and we really didn’t know because he didn’t recognize me, Willie or [his mom] Kay before they completely sedated him,” his wife Jessica recalled. “Yeah, it was scary, so when he came out and grabbed my hand it was such a sigh of relief for us; it was pretty emotional.”
Now the father of four is feeling much better, but doctors gave him orders to stay away from hunting for a few weeks.
“They said I got to wait a few weeks, and I’m really mad about that,” he said.
Other than being on-screen on the Duck Dynasty reality TV series, Jep Robertson also functions as film and DVD editor for the show.
The A&E network discovered the Robertson family while working together on the Duck Commander Duck Calls; seven years have passed since their unlikely vaulting to national fame. Duck Dynasty won the hearts of American viewers with their Christian message and down-to-earth lifestyle.
Season 7 of Duck Dynasty airs on A&E starting later this month.
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