'Deadliest Catch' Captain Phil Harris' Fought Til the End

Phil Harris was more than just a Captain. He was a proud father and a strong soul. People magazine reports in his final days leading up to his Feb. 9 death, Deadliest Catch’s Harris surprised doctors when he beat the odds and emerged from a medically-induced coma.

"I think that miraculous recovery that happened so rapidly and blew the doctors' minds away was so that he could say the things that he had to say to the people he had to say them to," Dan Mittman, Harris’ best friend, tells People.

Harris went to an Anchorage hospital after suffering a stroke. Doctors performed lengthy surgery on the 53-year-old. After waking from the coma, Harris was able to talk and even walk, beginning physical therapy, but days later Harris was gone, People reports.

“We sat up and talked until midnight, not constantly because of catnaps, but that was our quiet time away from the cameras. We talked in detail, and he had regrets, and he shared them with me and he probably shared them with his sons. He accomplished what he needed to get done so he could be at peace,” Mittman tells People.

Harris endured medical ailments for some time, People reports, including four crushed disks and a pulmonary embolism in 2008.

Harris’ sons, Jake and Josh, tell People they were grateful to have those extra days with Dad.