'I was afraid she wasn't going to wake up,' recalls 'The View' co-host's primary physician, Dr.Jorge Rodriguez, when he spills on her battle with double pneumonia and sepsis.
- May 21, 2019
AceShowbiz - Whoopi Goldberg was given a one-in-three chance of dying as she battled double pneumonia and sepsis earlier this year.
"The Ghost" star had to take a hiatus from her daytime show "The View" to focus on her health, and now she is back to normal she introduced her doctors to TV viewers and fans on Monday, May 20, so they could explain how close the actress came to death.
Pulmonoligist Martin Greenberg revealed Whoopi was "in a bad way" when he first met her and her primary physician, Jorge Rodriguez, explained he could "barely understand" a word she was saying when she called to talk about her symptoms.
"She was gasping for air," he said on the show. "She couldn't breathe. Her teeth were chattering. She was obviously in what we call rigors."
The condition is often accompanied by a fever and sweating.
Dr. Rodriguez immediately knew something was wrong and tried to keep exhausted Whoopi awake: "I was afraid she wasn't going to wake up, because you don't know if someone... when they give you those clues, 'Is she really now just tired, or is she going to become unconscious and this is it?'," he said. "So I wanted her talking... That's how serious it was."
And Greenberg considered her chances of survival were 70 percent when he first diagnosed her.
"She had high fever, she was short of breath, very rapid heart rate, and a low oxygen level, which is not a good sign," the specialist explained.
"The crazy thing is people don't take pneumonia seriously, and you have to. And this idea that we can fight through everything... It will kill you. Inactivity, not doing anything, not checking, will kill you. So get your ego together and say, 'Yeah, I'm going to the doctor because I don't feel good'. It's OK to go to the doctor because you don't feel good."
And Whoopi, 63, explained the health crisis has stopped her in her tracks: "I don't do half of the stuff I was doing in terms of work," she said. "I slowed it down because you don't want to relapse. I don't ever want to do this again. I didn't like it. This is what happens when you don't take care of yourself."
