Selena Gomez says there was a frightening complication during her kidney transplant surgery.
“My teeth were like grinding, I was freaking out,” the singer said during an interview that aired Monday on Today. “It was a six-hour surgery that they had to do on me, and the normal kidney process is actually two hours.”
Gomez said doctors told her that her new kidney had “flipped” inside her. “I’m very grateful that there are people who know what to do in that situation,” she said.
The 25-year-old pop star appeared with friend and kidney donor Francia Raisa to talk about the transplant experience.
“My kidneys were just done,” Gomez recalled. “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.”
Raisa, who was living with Gomez at the time, said she knew there was a problem.
“One day she came home and she was emotional. I hadn’t asked anything. I knew she hadn’t been feeling well,” Raisa, 29, recalled. “She couldn’t open a water bottle one day. She chucked it and she started crying. And I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ and that’s when she told me. And she goes, ‘I don’t know what to do. The list is seven to 10 years long.
“It just vomited out of me: I was like, ‘Of course I’ll get tested.’”
Today host Savannah Guthrie asked Gomez: “You feel she saved your life?”
“Because she did,” Gomez replied.