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Sarah Silverman Says She Almost Died From A Freak Illness
(Photo by Gage Skidmore via the Creative Commons on Flickr)
Comedian Sarah Silverman posted on Facebook today that she had a near-death experience last week, explaining she'd contracted a freak case of epiglottitis and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai. Her recollection of her hospital stay is a hazy kaleidoscope of events:
I was drugged just enough to not feel the pain and have no idea what was happening or where I was. They had to have my hands restrained to keep me from pulling out my breathing tube.
With surgery she managed to come out safe and sound. She heaped a ton of gratitude on the good people at Cedars-Sinai:
I owe my life to Dr. Shawn Nasseri, Dr. Robert Naruse, Dr. Rob Huizenga, every nurse, and every technician & orderly at Cedars who's punch-the-clock jobs happen to save human lives on the regular.
And in spite of the harrowing events, Silverman retained her particular brand of humor. Apparently she gave a personal gift to one of her nurses:
I couldn't speak for a while and I don't remember a lot of my "lucid" time, but Amy (the Zvi) told me I stopped a nurse - like it was an emergency - furiously wrote down a note and gave it to her. When she looked at it, it just said, "Do you live with your mother?" next to a drawing of a penis.
According to the Mayo Clinic, epiglottitis occurs when the epiglottis, a small piece of cartilage that covers the windpipe, becomes inflamed and blocks the flow of air into the lungs. Symptoms include a severe sore throat, a muffled or hoarse voice, difficulty swallowing, and difficulty breathing. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the condition is rare in adults. We're breathing (no pun intended) a sigh of relief for Silverman because she's one of our favorites. She's an unabashed lover of animals and knows how to party it up on the red carpet.
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