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Chad Michael Murray nearly died when he was 15 years old.
During an appearance on the Great Company podcast on Friday, the “Freakier Friday” star, 43, opened up about a health scare that almost killed him as a teenager.
“I was 15. My intestines had twisted, and I was hospitalized for two and a half months. It was a lot,” he revealed. “We had surgery. I had internal bleeding, I lost 50% of my blood. I was on my deathbed.”
CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY ON TEACHING HIS CHILDREN ABOUT FAITH: ‘HAVING THE FEAR OF GOD IS VITAL’
Chad Michael Murray revealed he was on his “deathbed” at the age of 15 due to a serious medical issue. (Mike Marsland/WireImage))
“I don’t want to get too specific about all that stuff, but I just remember seeing my father, the weakest I’d ever seen him, and a priest at the end of my bed. They’re talking about last rites and all that stuff, and [the nurse] gave me a blood transfusion to save my life,” Murray, who said he was “in and out of consciousness,” added. “It saved my life.”
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Post surgery, the “One Tree Hill” star said his organs began to shut down. He was forced to have a second surgery.
“Regardless, you’re in there for two months and, you know, my organs shut down because you have blood all coagulated around them, and they had to wait till everything [healed]. “So, anyway, I had to have a second surgery to clean everything up,” he said on the podcast.
When Murray left the hospital, he had lost over 60 pounds.
Murray said the scary ordeal helped strengthen his relationship with his dad and with God. (Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty Images)
“I got out. I went from, like, 180 to 118 pounds. I was a skeleton when I got out,” he recalled. “I remember looking in the mirror the first time, going, ‘Who is that?’ Like, I cried. I couldn’t believe that I was looking back at that guy.”
Looking back, however, Murray said the scary ordeal brought him closer to his family and faith.
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“I started my relationship with God, and my relationship with my father became really close,” he said. “My dad [was] raising five kids on his own [and] came to the hospital every single day, and he spent countless nights with me when he had four more kids at home.”
“The man is tough as nails, and he did that for us. I’m beyond grateful. That’s when our relationship really bonded,” Murray added.
Last year, Murray opened up about how faith has played an important part in his life these days.
‘MERRY GENTLEMEN’ STAR CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY PUTS ‘GOD AND FAMILY FIRST’ TO AVOID ‘BAD SITUATIONS’
The ‘One Tree Hill’ alum said he relies on his faith in order to get him through the days. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)
“I truly believe for us – and this is again is what’s worked for us – is just having a foundation,” Murray, who shares three children with wife, Sarah Roemer, told Fox News Digital in 2024.
“You have to have a strong foundation to know that there’s consequence for your action in life. And with God, we’ve been able to really have that,” he continued. “We don’t walk around living in a bubble by any means. But we very much just love big, love strong. We love everybody. That’s how we go through our life every day, just trying to live as we feel we should, right? Through love. And so, by putting God and family first, we tie that all up. It helps us make every other decision that we make in our life.”
“It helps keep you out of bad situations,” he added. “By saying, ‘You know what, this probably is not a good idea. Let’s not go there.’ Right? So I don’t end up in places I shouldn’t be; we don’t end up in places we shouldn’t be. We make good decisions. It could be something as simple as walking into a grocery store and someone’s in a bad, foul mood. The response you could have would be to match that … and then it could become something you don’t want to deal with. Or you try to match it with love and all of a sudden the simplest gesture, you know, changes someone’s day.”