Here’s How ‘Real Housewives’ Star Tamra’s Husband Is Doing After Heart Surgery

Some episodes of The Real Housewives Of Orange County are all fun and games and woo woos, but the show has dealt with some serious stuff. From Vicki’s mom’s death to Tamra’s ongoing quest to regain her daughter’s trust, the heavy storylines have been peppered in enough to get us all to remember that the Real Housewives Of Orange County are, you know, real people. In the RHOC Season 13 premiere, viewers saw Tamra’s husband prepare for a scary procedure. But is Eddie Judge OK after his heart surgery?

Yes, this man who owns a gym and is the fittest person I’ve ever seen on television needed heart surgery. The first episode of the season recounted what led up to this decision: When Eddie was working out, he started realizing that his heartbeats were 250+ beats a minute, which is, uh, very, very high. After going to the doctor, Eddie was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, also known as an irregular heartbeat. In order to fix said heart problem, Eddie went in for an ablation, which, according to Mayo Clinic, is a procedure that creates scar tissue in a heart to make the irregular beats stop.

Tamra tried to keep strong for Eddie, but when he was in surgery, she told her mother that Eddie was freaking out about the mortality rate and saying that he didn’t want to die in surgery. My heart! This of course shook Tamra as well, though she was trying to stay strong for him.

Eddie’s surgery went well, as the episode shows, but unfortunately, it wasn’t the end of the road for him. According to People, Eddie has had five procedures in six months — two ablations and three cardioversions, which is a procedure that shocks the heart to get it to beat in normal sinus rhythm again.

In an interview with the Daily Dish, Tamra expressed how hard all of these surgeries have been on their family, especially because they moved into a new home in the middle of it all. She said:

"He’s still not doing great. And he's just taking it day by day. We don't know what his outcome's going to be. He has a doctor's appointment next week to find out what the next step is. But he's actually, right now, worse than when he started out. He just had a heart procedure three weeks ago where they went in and cauterized his heart in 71 places and we thought that that was going to be the end. But now he's in the healing process and that sent him into what's called a flutter and his heart is just uncontrollable. And he's on all kind of medication: heart medication and beta-blockers. And it's just really been difficult on pretty much all of us — more so on him."

Eddie, Tamra, and some friends and family recently took a vacation to Mexico, and their Instagram shows what seems to have been a calm, relaxing time — which is exactly what Eddie needs.

What has been good to see is how the other women on Real Housewives Of Orange County have been rallying around Tamra to support her going through all of this. Vicki, who Eddie still doesn't like after her friend Ricky spread rumors about him, was one of the first people on the phone to talk to Tamra and check in on Eddie's surgery day. It's a nice change of pace from all the screaming in each other's faces and vendettas and grudges. Tamra is getting the support she needs from her friends and family, Eddie is getting the support he needs from his family and friends, and let's just hope that Eddie's prognosis gets better soon.