Selena Gomez received a kidney transplant this summer and apparently, her experience was more severe than everyone had thought. Gomez and her best friend and kidney donor Francia Raisa sat down with Today where she revealed that she had an emergency second surgery due to complications with her kidney transplant.
“One day she came home and she was emotional. I hadn’t asked anything. I knew she hadn’t been feeling well,” said Francia Raisa. “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 (kidney transplant donor) list is seven to 10 years long.'”
That’s when she realized that her friend was sicker than she thought and immediately told her that she would get tested to see if she could be a kidney donor match.
Raisa was happy that she was able to do this for her best friend, but at the same time, she was terrified. “I had to write a will, which was scary because there’s no guarantee I’ll wake up,” Raisa said.
Thankfully, everything went well for Raisa, but Gomez did not have the same luck because her kidney was turning. “My teeth were like grinding, I was freaking out,” Gomez explained. “It was a six-hour surgery that they had to do on me, and the normal kidney process is actually two hours.”
“Apparently one of the arteries had flipped. I’m very grateful that there are people who know what to do in that situation,” she added. Gomez is doing much better even though after the surgeries, the two were in a delicate condition and needed help doing basic things like dressing themselves and showering.
They’re doing much better. Check out the full interview: