Consumer advisor Clark Howard speaks out about his battle with heart disease, near-death experience

You know our consumer advisor, Clark Howard, as someone who saves you time and money.

But did you know he had a near-death experience? Clark sat down with our Susan Koeppen for a personal chat about heart health and how he got his signature sign off.

Every day, Clark Howard brings us great consumer advice, and every story ends the same way.

“I’ll be in a city where people see me on TV and they’ll say, ‘say it, say it,’ and I know exactly what they mean and they just start cracking up,” Clark told Susan.

When Clark started doing television stories, he needed a way to button up his thoughts.

“We tried different things,” Clark recalled. “Then one day I said, Why don’t I just say my name?’ and they laughed. I said. ‘Iiiiiii’m Clark Howard,’ and they said,’ That’s it, that’s it!’”

And for years, beneath his signature black golf shirt, Clark had a ticking time bomb. You couldn’t tell on T, but inside his chest, his aortic valve was failing.

“Then, finally, I reached a point about two years ago that my valve was going to kill me. That it was at the point of failure. I was going to die,” said Clark.

Clark’s family has a history of heart disease. Both grandfathers and his mother died of heart attacks. His father had two before his death and his brother is a heart patient.

Back in 2011, Susan had her own near-death battle with heart disease. She suffered cardiac arrest in her 30s, followed by open heart surgery to fix a faulty mitral valve.

In December of 2023, Clark had aortic valve replacement surgery.

“I was out of the hospital the next day and the number one prescription following aortic valve replacement is you walk like a maniac. So, the day after surgery I walked four miles and then within two weeks, I was walking nine miles a day,” said Clark.

“Going through all of that, I know for me it totally changed my life and my outlook on how I live my life every single day,” said Susan.

“What I find is that every day is bonus time. I’ve always loved life but now I love it even more,” said Clark.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

©2025 Cox Media Group