KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — It was double joy for a Boston man who not only survived a double-bypass heart surgery but also won the US$1 million (RM4.23 million) lottery.

Alex McLeish was given three lottery tickets, one of which was the winning ticket, by a friend in a get-well card as he was recovering from the procedure, Boston Herald reported.

"We double-checked it, triple-checked and quadruple-checked it because you want to make sure it’s real before you mention it to anybody,” he reportedly said.

"It was a little bit of disbelief at first but then it settled in and it was like wow, I can’t believe this happened, you know?”

McLeish had taken part in the "$5,000,000 100X Cashword” instant ticket that requires players to match their letters to words on a crossword puzzle-like board. 

The more complete words the player has, the more he wins.

In McLeish’s case, he scratched off just three letters at first: A, W and M which were his initials. 

He grabbed his phone and texted both Larry, his friend, and his brother about that coincidence, calling the ticket "haunted”.

As he continued scratching off the letters and words on Thanksgiving Day, he found another meaningful sign: The word "heart,” as he still recovered from his surgery. 

At the end of the game, McLeish found 11 words total — a million-dollar number.

This is not the first time Larry has bought McLeish a winning ticket with the first time being McLeish’s 60th birthday that saw him winning US$1,000 (RM4,227). 

McLeish reportedly said he would give some of his winnings to his sons as well as Larry.