Rush Limbaugh, right, speaks during a news conference in Honolulu as Joana Magno, M.D. chief of the Dept. of Cardiovascular Diseases at The Queen's Medical Center looks on. Rush: U.S. health system 'just fine'

HONOLULU - Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Friday that he had not suffered a heart attack and that his physician did not know the reason for the symptoms that resulted in his hospitalization in Hawaii this week, despite a number of tests performed on him.

"I wish I knew what it was,” Limbaugh told reporters before he was released from Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, which he was rushed to Wednesday after complaining of chest pains. "All people can do is make wild guesses about it."


Limbaugh shot down speculation that he is again taking painkillers amid news reports that he told paramedics when they arrived Wednesday at his hotel room that he was on medication for back pain.

Asked if he was taking painkillers, he flatly said "No," and added that he was taking Prednisone, a type of steroid used to treat inflammatory diseases.

Limbaugh, who has been vacationing in Hawaii at the same time as President Obama, also used his 5-minute statement to ding Obama's plan to overhaul the health care system.

"The treatment I received here was the best that the world has to offer,” Limbaugh said. “Based on what happened here to me, I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system. It is working just fine, just dandy."

Limbaugh said that despite his celebrity he received the same treatment as anyone else who would have called 911 and been taken to the hospital in his condition.

"I got no special treatment," he said, adding that the care he received was nonetheless "confidence inspiring."

"I just feel very grateful and thankful be an American and have this happen to me," he said.

Dressed in a blue polo shirt, white shorts and black loafers, Limbaugh was energetic as he delivered his statement at a podium in a small room on the sixth floor of the hospital. He said around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday he started to feel chest pains and initially tried to walk it off around his hotel room. But when the symptoms did not dissipate, he called for emergency help and was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

With the physician who treated him, Dr. Joana Magno, by his side, Limbaugh made a plea for others who may have a similar experience not to wait around before calling 911.

"I'm 58, will be 59 in a couple of weeks - you start thinking about these kinds of things. Don't mess with it,” he said. “Any time you have heart pain or chest pain and you have no idea what it is and it's something you've never experienced before, turn it over to professionals right off the bat."

Limbaugh thanked well wishers who have reached out to him over the past two days.

"It has been a humbling experience," he added, saying he was overwhelmed with well-wishers who reached him

"It was a blessing that it happened as it did with no damage whatsoever," he said of his heart attack scare, "because it takes things like this in life maybe to prepare you for the [reality] that you are getting older, you're not as young as you were and not as invincible as you once thought you were."

On his way out of the room, Limbaugh told a reporter he plans to return to his radio show next Wednesday, not Monday as originally planned.

Limbaugh has been in Hawaii since December 23, staying at the posh Kahala Hotel and Resort.

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