Duane "Dog The Bounty Hunter" Chapman is opening a new chapter in life, with his recent engagement to girlfriend Francie Frane. The 67-year-old reality star announced that he was planning to wed for the sixth time, less than a year after the death of his wife Beth Chapman last June. She passed away after a battle with lung cancer.  

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But  Chapman has health problems of this own that he needs to resolve before he can move on with the rest of his life. A heavy smoker, he was rushed to the hospital last fall with chest pains. Doctors discovered that he had serious heart disease and needed treatment to prevent a heart attack.

What disease does Dog the Bounty Hunter have — and how is his health now? 

He was rushed to the hospital in September.

In September 2019, the reality star was reportedly rushed to a hospital in Denver after suffering chest pain. At the time, his reps said that everything was fine and he was being cared for by doctors. Later, Chapman described the event in detailed terms. “I couldn’t breathe. It was like I had ran a three- or four-mile run," he told local media. His assistant had been with him at the time and took him to the hospital to get checked out.

He actually had a pulmonary embolism. 

What doctors discovered when they examined Chapman is that he had something called a pulmonary embolism. That's when a blood clot forms in a vein somewhere else in the body and travels to the lungs. If the clot gets lodged in an artery in the lungs, it can cause serious health problems, including death.

Pulmonary embolism causes exactly the kind of symptoms Chapman described: racing heart, shortness of breath, and chest pain. To treat an embolism, doctors often prescribe blood thinners to break down the clot and improve blood flow. In serious cases, you might need surgery to clear the blockage. The procedure is called heart catheterization and involves threading a thin. flexible tube through the heart vessels to remove the clot. 

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Chapman talked to Dr. Oz about his health.

Never one to shy away from publicity, Chapman did a house call with Dr. Oz for the cameras. Oz was somber about the bounty hunter's overall cardiac health, informing him that he was a "ticking time bomb.” 

“You're not going to be here with the heart the way it is right now," Oz said. " “When I look at your records, there’s an EKG in here, electrical lines. I see that there was some damage." Oz went on to say that Chapman's blood pressure was too high and his blood oxygen level was too low. He also scolded the 67-year-old about his lifestyle risks including lack of sleep, high stress, and a heavy smoking habit. 

Chapman continued to get treatment.

In the weeks that followed the scare, Chapman followed through with treatment, including a catheterization procedure. His family supported him as he tried to rebuild his health.

He also says he was healing a broken heart. 

In the aftermath of the health scare, Chapman suggested that part of the issue is that his heart is broken figuratively as well as literally. He lost Beth, his wife of 12 years to cancer in June 2019. The death of a spouse is a traumatic event for anyone and grief can exacerbate existing health conditions. 

In the months that followed his embolism, Chapman managed to find a way to soothe his emotional pain. He started dating a woman named Francie Frane and she helped him fell love and happiness again. Frane was also struggling after the loss of her spouse when the two met. Chapman had actually called her late husband about work he needed done and Frane had to tell him that her husband has passed away. They struck up a friendship from hat exchange and soon it turned into something more. 

In an Instagram post, Chapman described the feeling of grief giving way to love. He posted a photo of Frane and captioned it, "I scream & Cry Beth where are you why did you leave me then I look up & see you Francie & the pain turns to a smile I LOVE YOU WOMAN !!"

The couple says God brought them together.

Frane and Chapman plan to marry about the pandemic ends. 

Frane and Chapman announced that they were engaged in April 2020. They want to wait until social distancing restrictions are lifted before they have a wedding because Chapman wants the "biggest wedding there's ever been." 

Frane accepts that the couple will face criticisms for rushing into an engagement less than a year after Beth Chapman's death. "I think, too, there's always going to be people who say we did this wrong or we did that wrong or we've moved on too quickly or too fast,” she said. “But the truth is that both of us have spent three years walking alongside our spouses sick and we know that God brought us together and that's why we don't believe that it's too soon."

Frane will be Chapman's sixth wife. 

Frane and Chapman got engaged this spring. 

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Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.​