How HGTV Star Ty Pennington's Health Scare Changed His Outlook On Life

In 2000, Ty Pennington started his TV career on "Trading Spaces." The carpenter later spent nearly a decade on "Extreme Makeover," and has hosted HGTV's "Rock the Block" and "Ty Breaker." During the summer of 2023, Pennington was also part of the network's "Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge." Unfortunately, just days before the show started airing that July, Pennington experienced an unexpected medical emergency.

In a July 14, 2023 social media update, the TV star explained that he had been suffering from a sore throat for a month. After traveling to Colorado to work on HGTV's "Battle on the Mountain," Pennington started to have difficulty breathing. While he hoped medication could help, medical professionals deemed the situation was more serious. "I was intubated and flown to the ICU in Denver," Pennington explained on Instagram. A significant abscess was causing the problem, and surgery was required.

Months later, the TV carpenter shared a positive lesson from his frightening experience. "You just don't know when your timecard's gonna get pulled, so wake up, live every single day to the fullest," Pennington told ET in March 2024. At the time, he was on the cusp of turning 60 and Pennington divulged that he planned to make the most of the coming decade. "I think we all want to make sure we've done things to be remembered." Pennington loves creating art, and he's been taking time for personal projects. In April 2024, he treated his social media followers to a sped-up video of him creating a picture. 

Five days after Ty Pennington posted about his emergency surgery for a throat abscess, the HGTV star provided an update on his Instagram account. Alongside a clip of one of his rescue dogs sitting outside and looking at a peaceful river, Pennington wrote: "This view, those dogs, the person sitting next to me ... grateful for it all."  Pennington was likely referring to his wife, Kellee Merrell, as the person who is with him. The couple has been married since November 2021. Prior to their marriage, Pennington and Merrell weathered the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic together — an experience that showed them they could depend on each other in tough times. 

Pennington was also appreciative of all the well-wishes he received from fans while he recovered from his health scare.  "What's great is if you almost die, you get so much attention," the TV host later explained to ET. "It feels so nice to be that loved." Fortunately, Pennington's recovery was fairly quick following his surgery. Just ten days after he left the hospital, he was cleared to return to work. 

Pennington's enthusiasm for his career is evident, and, in February 2024, he expressed his heartfelt gratitude. "Not to be cheesy but feeling super grateful for this life," he wrote on Instagram. "It's been 24 years of working in TV and I'm so lucky to do it alongside friends that feel like family!

Months before he experienced a serious throat abscess, Ty Pennington recounted a previous life-changing health scare. In January 2023, the TV star posted a picture of himself reenacting a J. Crew modeling pose from decades earlier. Pennington had been pursuing a modeling career, and, at 27, this was his first big break. Sadly, he never got to experience the next phase of modeling offers. "Only one week later I would be in a horrible car accident — catapulted out of a barreling jeep, sliding across a razor sharp road on my backside," Pennington recalled on Instagram. The damage from his injuries, combined with the loss of his modeling portfolio, catalyzed Pennington to pivot to his earlier work as a carpenter. Then, in 1995, he used his building skills as a set production assistant on the movie "Leaving Las Vegas." 

Pennington acted in commercials during his modeling career, and these on-camera experiences, combined with his carpentry know-how, led him to the beginning of his TV stardom on "Trading Spaces." Pennington's sunny personality and sense of humor also tipped the scales in his favor. "Sometimes something bad can happen that actually leads to something even bigger and better," Pennington philosophized to People in February 2023. "You think that it's the end of the world, but it's actually just a whole new page that's being turned into a chapter."