NEED TO KNOW
- Chad Michael Murray is opening up about the two months he spent in the hospital as a teenager, facing a life-threatening health crisis
- The actor said that when he was 15, his intestines became twisted, which led to internal bleeding and required him to have two surgeries
- “I lost 50% of my blood. I was on my deathbed,” he shared on the Aug. 8 episode of the Great Company podcast
Chad Michael Murray is opening up about the two months he spent in the hospital as a teenager.
During an appearance on the Great Company podcast on Friday, Aug. 8, the Freakier Friday star spoke candidly about facing a life-threatening health crisis when he was 15. He said his intestines became twisted, which led to internal bleeding.
“I was hospitalized for two and a half months. It was a lot,” Murray, 43, said, sharing that he was “in and out of consciousness” during his hospitalization.
“We had surgery. I had internal bleeding, I lost 50% of my blood. I was on my deathbed,” the actor shared, revealing that his family even called in a priest to give him his last rites at one point.
“I just remember seeing my father, the weakest I’d ever seen him, and a priest at the end of my bed. They’re talking about last rites and all that stuff, and [the nurse, Sandy] gave me a blood transfusion to save my life,” Murray continued. ”It saved my life.”
Although the actor didn’t reveal his exact diagnosis or what caused his intestines to twist, the University of California San Francisco states that conditions such as volvulus occur when the intestine twists around itself, creating an obstruction that leads the surrounding area in the body to fill with food, fluid and gas.
According to Murray, he underwent a second surgery to further “clean up” his internal organs.
“Regardless, you’re in there for two months and, you know, my organs shut down because you have blood all coagulated around them, and they had to wait till everything [healed more]. So, anyway, I had to have a second surgery to clean everything up,” he said on the podcast.
The One Tree Hill actor also shared that his experience in the hospital helped him get into Hollywood, after one of his nurses, a model named Alana, encouraged him to take up modeling.
“Alana says to me, ‘Oh gosh, you should model,’ ” he said, reflecting on the conversation that jump-started his career. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to model. I want to be an actor. Like, I love film and television. I want to give this gift to other people.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, you can segue from modeling into acting. Look, when you get out, I’m hooking you up with this modeling company I know.’ And she meant it.”
According to Murray, getting out of the hospital was the “scariest thing ever” due to how much weight he had lost.
“I got out. I went from, like, 180 to 118 pounds. I was a skeleton when I got out,” he recalled. “I remember looking in the mirror the first time going, ‘Who is that?’ Like, I cried. I couldn’t believe that I was looking back at that guy.”
Murray also shared that his time in the hospital helped him connect with his faith, and it also brought him closer to his dad, a single parent who was raising him and his siblings.
“I started my relationship with God, and my relationship with my father became really close,” he said. “My dad [was] raising five kids on his own [and] came to the hospital every single day, and he spent countless nights with me when he had four more kids at home.”
“The man is tough as nails, and he did that for us. I’m beyond grateful. That’s when our relationship really bonded,” Murray added.
The Sullivan’s Crossing actor had previously been candid about his near-death experience as a teen, and has also spoken out about how he’s cared for his health in the years since then.
Appearing on the Jess Cagle Show on SiriusXM in 2019, Murray said he focuses on clean eating and avoids alcohol to ensure something like that doesn’t happen again.
“I fueled myself with food and I’ve made myself sick because of food,” he said. “I’ve been on the bad side of it and the good side of it.”
The experience of watching movies and TV shows in the hospital also helped him to reflect on why he pursued a career in acting, Murray also said at the time.
“That’s why I became an actor in life,” he explained. “I’m just having fun and trying to remember to do those things. Because that’s what it’s about, entertaining. It’s not about anything else for me, but putting out good love and good energy in the world through my family, God and my work.”
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