KEY POINTS:
Comedian Mike King discharged himself from a Melbourne hospital yesterday afternoon after suffering a stroke on Sunday.
King, 44, collapsed in a Melbourne hotel on Sunday and was taken to King Edward Hospital.
King had confirmed the carotid artery in his neck had torn, causing a blood clot that travelled to his brain and triggered a stroke, The Dominion Post reported today.
Speaking from hospital yesterday morning before discharging himself in the afternoon King said what had happened was "absolutely horrible".
He said he was feeling a million times better.
His sister Darrien Glozier said King had earlier experienced paralysis and lost his speech.
"He said he felt like a zombie, a retard -- you know what his sense of humour is like," she told the paper.
King was in Australia attending a poker tournament when he collapsed.
His manager David Steele said he was confident the comedian would return to his Game of Two Halves television slot when the programme got underway again next month.
Former All Black captain Graham Thorne's son, David, 21, has been partly paralysed and unable to speak since injuring his carotid artery in a rugby match last May.
- NZPA
