Talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh will be back on the air next week after being released from the Queen's Medical Center yesterday.

Limbaugh told reporters yesterday that tests showed nothing was wrong with his heart. On Wednesday, he had chest pains and was taken by ambulance to the hospital from the Kahala Hotel and Resort, where he was vacationing.

“;The pain was real and they don't know what caused it,”; Limbaugh, 58, said during a news conference at the hospital. He said a spasm in an artery may have caused the pain.

Dressed in a blue polo shirt with white shorts and black loafers, he entered the room with a smile and a ruddy complexion. He thanked the hotel and hospital staff and well-wishers for their support.

“;I'm overcome with all of the prayers, the cards, the flowers, that have come in from people all over the country,”; he said. “;It has been a very humbling experience.”;

  Limbaugh checks out of hospital

 

The conservative radio talk show host says tests show nothing wrong with his heart.

[ Watch ]

 

When asked if he was taking painkillers again for his back pain, he said no and laughed. In 2003, he acknowledged an addiction to painkillers for severe back pain and took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter rehab.

Limbaugh couldn't resist making some political comments and apparently directed one at health care reform.

“;I've been treated to the best health care the world has to offer and that is right here in the United States of America,”; he said.

“;I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system,”; Limbaugh said. “;I got no special treatment other than what anybody else that would have called 911 and had been brought in with the same kinds of symptoms.”;

Limbaugh plans to return to his show after some rest, Bloomberg News reported. More than 14 million people listen to Limbaugh's show at least once a week, making him the nation's highest-rated broadcaster.

Limbaugh said the incident was a “;blessing in disguise.”;

“;It takes things like this in life maybe to prepare you for the eventuality that you are getting older, you're not as young as you were, and not as invincible as you once thought you were,”; he said.

He said it all started when he experienced pain in his upper left chest “;like I have never experienced before”; about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. He walked around and sat down, but “;nothing abated.”;

Then he called the hotel security staff. In 20 minutes, he was at the hospital undergoing tests and the pain was alleviated in half an hour.

At the hospital, he had an angiogram, a test in which a catheter is threaded into an artery, that showed no arterial or coronary disease.

Gov. Linda Lingle praised the staffs of the Kahala and Queen's for how they treated him.

Dr. Joana Magno, a cardiologist who treated Limbaugh at the hospital, urged people to call for help immediately if they think they have a heart problem.

“;Time is very, very important, and the sooner you can get to the medical care for your heart, the sooner we know what the problems are and the sooner we can treat it,”; Magno said.

Star-Bulletin reporter Rob Shikina and the Associated Press contributed to this report.