The Condition That Almost Cost Dog The Bounty Hunter His Life

To his fans, Duane "Dog" Chapman is a real-life superhero. As the star of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" on A&E, Chapman and his band of intrepid bounty hunters proved themselves to be as tough with their quarry as earlier news reports suggested. Dog the Bounty Hunter rose to prominence after the high-profile capture of fugitive Andrew Luster in Mexico, which saw Chapman and his team arrested by Mexican authorities. Thereafter, Chapman and his family entered the reality TV limelight, with even shootouts with fugitives featuring on the show (though Chapman claims to carry no deadly weapons himself). Brave in the face of danger, Chapman came across as a person of superhuman strength and resilience.

However, recent years have shown that Chapman is all too human. He has experienced both personal tragedy as well as a very public health scare that began with the reality TV star experiencing pains in his chest. Sadly, they proved to be symptomatic of a serious health condition that led to an overhaul of his lifestyle.

Despite Duane Chapman taking central billing in "Dog the Bounty Hunter," fans of the reality TV hit know that it is not simply a one-man show. Alongside Dog was his loving wife, Beth, whose bombastic, curse-laden presence helped to create one of the most entertaining marriage dynamics in television history.

A fellow bounty hunter, Beth Chapman proved to be just as tough as her husband, and starred in their hit show for eight seasons, as well as its spinoff "Dog and Beth: On the Hunt." Sadly, in September 2017 Beth was diagnosed with stage 2 throat cancer, for which she had emergency surgery and explored various experimental treatments before succumbing to the disease on June 26, 2019 at the age of 51, after delivering some loving final words to Dog.

Dog was heartbroken by Beth's illness and death, and when just a few months later he began to experience chest pains and shortness of breath, he was convinced he was suffering from a broken heart. As he told FOX31 Denver, he initially believed his symptoms were psychological. However, when they persisted he was convinced to seek medical attention.

It is something of a stereotype that many men put off seeking medical attention for their ailments until it is too late. Sadly, it is in many cases all too true — and certainly was with Duane "Dog" Chapman. The star, who was in his mid-60s when his health problems began to interfere with his everyday life, has admitted that it was always his wife Beth who convinced him when he needed to go to see a doctor. With her gone, Chapman was liable to ignore his health, but an intervention from TV's Dr. Oz reportedly convinced him that he should undergo a series of tests on his heart and lungs, which took place on Season 11 of Oz's show. 

Dog has been a heavy smoker for much of his tangled life, but only admitted the extent of his addiction on the show, revealing that he had begun smoking at the age of just 12 and that for over the course of more than 40 years, he was smoking around three and a half packs of cigarettes a day. Though tests on Dog's heart surprisingly revealed him to be in good cardiac health, a scan of his lungs revealed the presence of a pulmonary embolism, a potentially fatal condition.

As Dr. Oz explained, a pulmonary embolism, which in scans looks like nothing more than a tiny smudge on the image, is a blood clot that occurs in the pulmonary artery connecting the heart to the lungs. Such clots typically form in the legs, in deep veins which carry it into the heart and then the pulmonary artery, where it can form a blockage, preventing blood from effectively entering the lungs.

Pulmonary emboli can be potentially deadly. By blocking the pulmonary artery, they can prevent blood from reaching the lungs to be reoxygenated. As well as killing lung tissue, such emboli can cause pulmonary hypertension, fluid on the lung, arrhythmia of the heart, and, in severe cases, cardiac arrest. Upon its discovery, Dr. Oz described heavy-smoking Chapman as a "ticking time bomb," with his addiction to cigarettes likely to further the damage to his lungs, and advised that the bounty hunter commit to giving up smoking for good (via People). 

Prior to seeking medical advice, Duane "Dog" Chapman believed he was in pretty good health, as he continued to exercise regularly. However, it became clear on "The Dr. Oz Show" that his decades of smoking had taken its toll on his lungs. Smoking causes blood vessels such as the pulmonary arteries to become narrower, increasing the likelihood of blood clots forming and potentially fatal blockages to occur. Dog's pulmonary embolism, which was behind his shortness of breath, was liable to be exacerbated by continued smoking, causing a potentially fatal heart attack.

Thankfully, Chapman told Oz that he was now committed to quitting and that he had already cut down with the use of nicotine patches. Oz and the team he had assembled to help Chapman also convinced the reality TV star to begin attending therapy sessions, to help address the underlying emotional issues that coexist alongside his chemical addiction to nicotine.

Chapman made a promise to his fiancée, Francie Frane, that he would never smoke another cigarette after January 1, 2021, though in a Dr. Oz update in February that same year, he said he'd cut down to around five cigarettes a day. Since marrying Frane in 2021, Chapman's Instagram page shows he's become very involved with Christianity. He turned 70 in February, 2023, and in April 2024 he released a memoir called, "Nine Lives and Counting: A Bounty Hunter's Journey to Faith, Hope, and Redemption."