Francia Raísa Says Selena Gomez Almost Died After Her Kidney Transplant

Last September, social media practically exploded when news broke that Francia Raísa donated a kidney to her longtime best friend, Selena Gomez, who was suffering from lupus—arguably the bravest, most touching display of female friendship from 2017. Gomez first talked about the transplant on Instagram, where she uploaded a photo of herself and Raísa at the hospital, and the two followed it up with a sit-down interview on Today, divulging specific details about the transplant, like the prep beforehand and how they recovered. Now Raísa’s talking about the procedure again in a new interview with W magazine.

Most of what she says we’ve already heard before; however, she does offer one tidbit that might shock fans. Apparently, Gomez almost died during the procedure: Raísa’s kidney was very active in Gomez’s body, and they had to pull a vein from her leg to keep it in place.

“Recovery was hard,” Raísa told the magazine. “I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to drink anything. 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. 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.”

Raísa also admitted that both she and Gomez became depressed shortly after the procedure. “We didn’t want to tell anybody because recovery was very hard for us, and we went through a depression at the time,” she said.

Thankfully, both Gomez and Raísa came out on the other side healthier and stronger than ever. Raísa’s starring on the new hit Black-ish spinoff show Grown-ish, and Gomez reportedly has new music on the way. Things are good, and they each have a positive outlook on 2018. “Now I’m more motivated and inspired than ever,” Raísa said.

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