‘Selling Sunset’ Star Amanza Smith Opens Up About Surviving A Life-Threatening Bone Infection She Addressed ‘Two Days’ Before Potentially Dying
23.08.2023 - 16:33
/ etcanada.com
“Selling Sunset” star, Amanza Smith, is opening up about a recent health scare. What Smith thought was just lower back pain, ended up being something much more alarming.
In a new interview with People, the interior designer, 46, shared her story after undergoing two invasive spinal surgeries this summer, explaining how osteomyelitis — a potentially rare and life-threatening bone infection — was affecting her lower vertebrae.
In May, Smith experienced a severe backache that lasted almost a full month, causing her to collapse one evening at her Los Angeles home. Five days later, she agreed to let a close friend take her to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. After doing an MRI, doctors discovered that Smith had a dangerously advanced case of vertebral osteomyelitis — a vertebral infection that is fatal for two out of 10 patients.
READ MORE: Amanza Smith Reveals She’s Cancer-Free After ‘Selling Sunset’ Health Scare
“One or two more days at home and you could have been dead,” she recalled her doctor’s words to her.
“I thought I had a backache, and I almost died,” the reality star told People. “The doctors and my friend saved my life.”
Upon Smith’s hospital admission on June 2, doctors put her on IV antibiotics before undergoing a lower spine surgery to “clear the infection from the bones,” she explained. However, they discovered the osteomyelitis, which can potentially arise from a medical procedure or an injection — in Smith’s case it was unclear — had also infected the front of her spine.
“It was close to my aorta and my kidney,” Smith said of the area, noting that it was initially too dangerous to operate on.
Instead doctors relied on the antibiotics, hoping they would stop the infection, but Smith’s vertebrae continued to