Taylor Swift couldn’t be more grateful that her dad “pulled through” his recent health woes over the summer. In August, during her appearance on her fiancé Travis Kelce’s podcast with his brother Jason Kelce, New Heights — during which she announced her since-released album The Life of a Showgirl — the “Eldest Daughter” singer revealed that she had moved in with her father Scott Swift as he recovered from major heart surgery. The former stockbroker underwent quintuple bypass surgery, and the Grammy winner just shared an update on how he’s doing.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s The Morning Mashup on Monday, October 6, Taylor said her dad, 73, is “doing so great” following the major heart surgery, “getting him back to his old self,” and that “by his own according of it, he’s actually at 150% now.” She emphasized: “He’s actually got too much energy. He’s doing amazing.”
© GC Images“He had amazing medical care and help and doctors and nurses who I am going to be forever grateful for,” Taylor went on, noting that going through the ordeal really “recontextualizes what matters to you” and reminded her “how lucky I am that he pulled through.”
Per the Mayo Clinic: “Coronary artery bypass surgery creates a new path for blood to go around a blocked or partially blocked artery in the heart. The surgery involves taking a healthy blood vessel from the chest or leg area. The vessel is connected below the blocked heart artery. The new path improves blood flow to the heart muscle.”
When she first opened about her dad’s surgery, Taylor explained that it all “happened really quick,” noting that her dad had year after year always received a “perfect EKG,” an electrocardiogram, which records the electrical activity of the heart. However, it was a cardiac stress test that led doctors to find five blockages in his heart. “So, he’s been telling all his friends, ‘You need to get the stress test because that’s what’s actually preventative.’ If you can find that earlier, you don’t have to have a bypass surgery,” Taylor added. “You can sort out those blockages with stents and things that are a lot less invasive.”
© Getty ImagesTaylor, who has long hailed both of her parents as her best friends, shared of how it changed her family dynamic: “It was kind of wild because it was like, very parent-child reversal in a lot of ways. My brother and my mom and I were each taking shifts in the ICU and staying with him 24/7.”
© Getty ImagesShe also revealed she essentially moved into her dad’s house to take care of him, and gave insight into what he was like as a patient. “I’m like, this dude built play sets and swing sets and cribs for me. I’m building his shower chair and his walker, and his bed that goes like this,” she said, gesturing with her hands the accessible bed Scott used while recovering.
© Getty Images for ACMTaylor maintained that her dad was “the loveliest patient ever” and he “just kept saying thank you over and over again,” as Travis added that Scott is “full of life” and “appreciative that doctors caught it.”
