Ty Pennington is committed to living life to the fullest following a health scare last summer. The television personality was hospitalized with a throat abscess that left him struggling to breathe.

Now, eight months later, Pennington is thankful for his new lease on life.

“It made me realize you just don’t know when your timecard’s gonna get pulled, so wake up, live every single day to the fullest,” he tells Entertainment Tonight.

Why Was Ty Pennington Hospitalized?

The HGTV star rattled social media when he shared a photo of himself in a hospital bed in July 2023.

“Turns out, that sore throat I’ve had for the last month was actually an abscess which had grown so large it was closing off my airway,” Pennington wrote at the time.

“Next thing I know, I was intubated and flown to the ICU in Denver. Wednesday I had surgery and yesterday afternoon I was released from the ICU.”

Pennington says he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t breathe. He drove himself to the hospital to get a steroid shot, but was instead flown to Denver for emergency surgery to drain the abscess. He was discharged from the hospital the next day.

The near-death experience garnered a lot of concern from his loved ones and fans, which he may have enjoyed a little too much.

“You know what’s great is if you almost die, you get so much attention,” he explains. “It feels so nice to be that loved.”

“I’m planning another one,” he jokes “No, I’m kidding!”

Fans can watch Pennington on Season 5 of his renovation show Rock the Block on HGTV.