Whoopi Goldberg Almost Died From A VERY Common Mistake!

We still can’t get over how close we came to losing Whoopi Goldberg this year!

The living legend (and one of only 15 EGOTs ever!) was hospitalized in February with double pneumonia.

And while she kept pretty private about it at the time, we found out later she very nearly died.

Photo: Whoopi And Her Late Mother Are IDENTICAL In This Throwback Pic

The View host fell ill back in November but put off going to the doctor for two months — far too long according to her doctors!

Whoopi assumed she just had a common cold or flu — but continued experiencing shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness, and a cough for weeks.

She eventually did decide to seek medical treatment, and not a moment too soon.

Whoopi first called her primary physician, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, who revealed during an appearance on The View back in May that he could “barely understand what she was saying” she was so short of breath.

He told her she absolutely wasn’t going to sleep it off and to come in immediately.

As her pulmonologist, Dr. Martin Greenberg, explains in the new issue of People magazine:

“It all finally came to a head leading to her rapid decline and long hospital stay.”

Whoopi had to undergo thoracentesis, a procedure in which a needle is inserted into the area between the lungs and the chest wall to drain all the fluid, twice.

Even Whoopi says was surprised to learn how sick she had been. As she recalls:

“The doctor told me, ‘Listen, you’re not going anywhere tomorrow and you’re not going anywhere next week because you are really sick. You were this close to dying.’ I was like, ‘Really?’ I never thought of pneumonia as something that serious. In my mind I wasn’t that sick.”

That is so dangerous! And it’s a mistake many people make.

A study in April found as many as 70% of adults who died prematurely of natural causes had not sought any medical treatment in the month before their deaths. As study co-author Stacy Drake, Ph.D. explained:

“They had symptoms and knew they were getting worse. Yet, they didn’t seek the attention of a healthcare provider.

We know many people out there think they’ll just get over it and don’t want to waste time at the doctor’s office — or maybe they don’t have the proper medical coverage. But you have to put your health first, and better safe than sorry!

That’s the message Whoopi wants fans to take away from her close call:

“I hope that this is a cautionary tale for people. You have to take the time to take care of yourself.”

How is she doing now?

After going through “aggressive” chest physical therapy, Whoopi still needs more time to heal, even five months on.

She says she’s still only about 70% recovered:

“I get winded going up stairs and I still can’t get on my treadmill. Nobody wants to feel like they can’t do something, but your body says no sometimes. And that’s just fine. I never want to relapse so I’m okay taking the stairs easy. I don’t care about old lady jokes. Bring them on!”

We can’t wait to see her at 100 again. Maybe we could even finally get a real Oscars host again?

[Image via Derrick Salters/WENN/ABC/YouTube.]

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