Selena Gomez ‘Nearly Died’ During Kidney Surgery, Best Friend Says
In the here and now, Selena Gomez, who was diagnosed with lupus in 2013, is doing well with the condition. But best friend Francia Raisa, who donated a kidney to Gomez last summer to help Gomez cope with the autoimmune disease, says things became dire during surgery in a way most fans aren't aware of.
In an interview with W, Raisa says the operation included a hiccup that could have cost Gomez her life.
"Selena did have a complication, too. A few hours after our surgery, I woke up and had a text from her that said, 'I'm really scared.' My kidney was very active, and when it turned I broke an artery," Raisa said. "They had to take her into emergency surgery and get a vein from her leg and build a new artery to keep my kidney in place. She could have died."
Gomez chronicled her tough road to recovery during an October 2017 interview with Today, during which she credited Raisa with being her angel.
“My kidneys were shutting down. My mentality was to keep going,” she said. “[Raisa] lived with me during this interesting time where my kidneys were just done. That was it, and I didn’t want to ask a single person in my life. The thought of asking someone to do that was really difficult for me. She volunteered and did it. And let alone someone wanting to volunteer, it is incredibly difficult to find a match. The fact that she was a match, I mean that’s unbelievable. That’s not real.”
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