Barry Hearn suffered a heart attack last month during Leyton Orient’s play-off semi-final clash against Stockport County, his son Eddie has revealed.
Barry, a legendary sports promoter, who has been involved in snooker, boxing, darts, football and more, previously owned the Os between 1995 and 2014.
And, according to Eddie, a renowned boxing promoter, Barry felt some discomfort during the first leg of play-off encounter against Stockport and had to be taken to hospital.
The 77-year-old, who has had two previous heart attacks, then had a third stent installed. A stent is a small mesh-like tube that helps to keep arteries open and is a common procedure following a heart attack.
Thankfully, Barry recovered and despite the ordeal, he was remarkably present at Dave Allen’s boxing clash against Johnny Fisher just a week later.
Reflecting on what happened, Eddie told Boxing Social: ‘He’s fine. Obviously it’s always very scary, that kind of thing. It was at the Orient match. It will do that to you, Leyton Orient.
‘Five minutes in and he said “I’ll just see out the game”. Unfortunately he had to go down to the doctors and get taken to hospital, he had a heart attack.
‘He had another stent. He’s had three stents now, three heart attacks. As far as he’s concerned he’s brand new now. He played cricket at the weekend for Essex Over-70s. He scored 60.
‘It actually happened the weekend before the Johnny Fisher fight, so it was back in May, and he went to the Johnny Fisher fight, five days after the heart attack.’
Speaking further about his father’s rapid recovery and return to normality, Eddie provided further context.
‘On the Monday he had a stent put in to his artery,’ he added. ‘Tuesday they let him out. So he gets back home Tuesday.
‘So I’m like “right, well you won’t be coming to the Johnny Fisher fight”. He says “no I’m f***ing coming to the Johnny Fisher fight”.
‘No, what are you doing? “I’m not missing the Johnny Fisher fight!” I said “dad, chill out”. He goes “I’m not living my life like that, I’ve had a new stent, I’m brand new”.’
Eddie continued: ‘That’s what you’re dealing with. When he goes, my dad, it could be next week, or it could be in 10 years, you just never know when your time’s up.
‘But you will be able to say he lived to the absolute max of his life. And that’s a great thing to be able to say.’
Orient went on to draw the first leg against Stockport 2-2 before they progressed to the final on penalties following a 1-1 draw in the second leg.
However, the Os – who were owned by Hearn when they last reached the League One play-off final in 2014 when they lost to Rotherham – were beaten 1-0 by Charlton to consign Richie Wellens’ side to another season in the third tier.
Hearn had previously explained the painful nature of that dramatic defeat by Rotherham 11 years ago and how it had impacted him.
‘I’ve been paying for therapy ever since that day against Rotherham!,’ he said. ‘I get nightmares about it. This (the Charlton game) is my opportunity to cleanse myself, take away my therapist bills, go back to normal sleep patterns.’
