Winters reveals harrowing health battle

NEW YORK, June 18 (UPI) -- U.S. television actor Dean Winters says he has spent the past year dealing with the aftermath of a bacterial infection that stopped his heart for 2 1/2 minutes.

Winters, 45, is best known for his work on "Oz," "Rescue Me" and "30 Rock." He also appeared on the shows "Life on Mars" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

The actor told the New York Post his ordeal started last June when he had been feeling ill and suffered a high fever, then went to his doctor's office in Manhattan and collapsed.

As he was being transported by ambulance to a hospital, Winters said, "I died on Fifth Avenue."

He told the Post paramedics were able to revive him and he spent three weeks in the hospital's ICU before he was released. After a month of recuperation at home, however, he developed gangrene for which doctors amputated two toes and half a thumb.

The Post said he ultimately spent 95 days in hospitals and underwent 10 operations.

"People in Los Angeles think I'm dead," Winters laughed, adding Tina Fey had him return to her New York-based show "30 Rock" as a guest as soon as he was feeling up to it.

Getting more serious, he told the newspaper: "I feel like I'm a member of a very exclusive club -- with a very tight door policy. It's gonna take more than a finger and a couple of toes to keep me down."