Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart is in intensive care following a heart attack and may not survive, according to his son.
“Without a miracle, his time is short,” son Donnie Swaggart, who preaches from the same pulpit as his ailing 90-year-old father, said during a service Sunday.
The full extent of the pastor’s illness was not immediately clear.
Emergency responders quickly arrived at the scene after the scandal-plagued preacher went into cardiac arrest, family publicist Megan Kelly said and praised them for their efforts.
“Ambulances were able to respond very quickly. They gave him CPR, they took turns doing it, and you can imagine how emotional that was and how stressful that was in that moment,” she said.
There were no updates since his condition was first announced, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries said in a statement Monday.
“We ask that you continue to lift him up in prayer and believe God for a miracle — but above all, we trust in the Lord’s perfect will,” the ministry said, adding that it would continue to post updates on their Facebook page.
Swaggart was defrocked by the Assemblies of God in 1988 after a sex scandal, when rival televangelist Marvin Gorman publicized photos of him with a local prostitute at a Baton Rouge, La., motel. That February, he gave a tearful on-air apology for his actions, famously stating, “I have sinned.”
He weathered the controversy, and his TV audience grew to 800,000 viewers over the next few years. However, in 1991, he was pulled over in a traffic stop and found to be in the company of another prostitute, leading to several of his contracts being canceled.
Despite this, Swaggart kept preaching independently, opening the SonLife Broadcasting Network in 2010, an international Christian TV network that aired both live and prerecorded programs.
