Lamar Odom has been in the news multiple times over the years, from his basketball victories (and failures) to the revelation of his cheating on then-wife Khloe Kardashian. But what made the most headlines was his overdose in 2015 that sent him into a coma for four days. His addiction to cocaine was revealed after this, but he has since been to rehab and sobered up. It seemed like everything about Odom’s addiction and subsequent overdose has come to light.
That was until Kevin Hart released a new episode of his YouTube show, Cold As Balls , with Odom as his guest. The show centers around Hart and a guest athlete who both take an ice bath and get personal with each other in a candid interview. In this episode, Odom revealed that not only had he been in a coma following his overdose, but that he had had six heart attacks and 12 strokes while still comatose.
“All my doctors that see me say I’m a walking miracle,” Odom told Hart on the show. In a 2017 interview and essay in The Players’ Tribune , Odom revealed more about what going through the overdose had been like.
“You ever had a really bad dream, where you’re trying to run away from a monster or some sh**, and you just can’t run? Your legs don’t work like they should, and the monster is coming right behind you, and it’s like you’re in slow motion. That’s what it felt like,” he said in the interview. He also explained what precipitated his addiction: the death of his 6-month-old son, Jayden, who died of sudden infant death syndrome, in 2006.
“I think everything probably picked up at that point, with the drugs. Even subconsciously. You don’t even know why you’re doing it at that point. I think subconsciously, you make yourself an addict because of the trauma that you’re going through,” he explained.
Now, almost three years after his overdose, he is able to talk more openly about how serious his condition was and how the overdose really tuned his life around. He joked with Kevin Hart, opening about how grateful he was to be alive. He also expressed his gratitude to now ex-wife Khloe Kardashian, who came to his aid and took over his medical decisions during his coma to set him up for recovery. He called her actions “big,” recognizing the strength it took her to return to his side and help care for him despite betraying her several times.
