REGIS PHILBIN - PHILBIN TO UNDERGO BYPASS SURGERY

PHILBIN TO UNDERGO BYPASS SURGERY

US TV veteran REGIS PHILBIN is to undergone heart bypass surgery this week (ends16MAR07) after feeling shortness of breath. The 75-year-old host told viewers of his morning show LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY earlier today (12MAR07) that he had been feeling ill recently and a visit to the doctors confirmed he would have to have an operation. Speaking to the audience, Philbin said, "Well, listen, I gotta tell you something. I had been feeling chest pains, you know, and, uh, shortness of breath and all those little symptoms that you hear about." Philbin explained he is hoping to have an angioplasty this week, because "you know, you get in - bang, bang, bang - they blow it open and you leave the next day... there's some plaque in some arteries and I've got to get it cleaned out. "Darn it, I don't want to do it. Nobody wants to do it, I guess. And I had a second opinion, I did all those things, and so they're all in agreement that it should be the bypass. And so that's what I'm gonna do."