Former Czech TV journalist suffers severe heart attack after playing tennis with son

Marek Wollner, a former Czech Television reporter, was playing tennis with his son Filip at the Štvanice indoor hall when he was struck by severe, radiating chest pain that quickly turned into a massive heart attack. After calling an ambulance, paramedics recorded an EKG that showed a large infarction and rushed him to the 3rd internal clinic of Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice in Prague. There, doctors performed urgent catheterisation without putting him under anesthesia.

Wollner described the pain spreading from his chest to his shoulders, elbows, and spine, and he initially hoped it was a slipped vertebra. He expressed gratitude to the coronary unit staff for their care. Wollner left Czech Television in 2023 after 24 years amid accusations of inappropriate behavior, which police later found no criminal suspicion for and closed the case. He now serves as editor-in-chief of the news website FORUM 24 and has published a memoir about his experiences.