Vicki Gunvalson recounts a harrowing near-death experience.
Even though Vicki Gunvalson is not one of the titular Housewives real housewives of orange county Season 18, she will always be the OG of OC.
As she tells it, people mistook her alarming symptoms for a stroke. Then, doctors misdiagnosed her as having a sinus infection.
Eventually, she was diagnosed and treated. This could very well be the end of her life.
What kind of near-death experience did Vicki Gunvalson survive?
As you can see in the video below, Vicki Gunvalson sat down to watch the Monday, August 26, episode of My friend, my soulmate, my podcast podcast.
According to Vicki, she received her diagnosis in early August. Doctors determined she had a sinus infection.
She explained that she was prescribed antibiotics before her family went on vacation to Europe. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story.
When Vicki Gunvalson returned home from a vacation in Europe, she developed a variety of worrying symptoms.
She began to waste time—not minutes, but “an hour or two.” Once, she walked from the hair salon to the office and couldn’t remember the time in between.
Staff told her she had been “talking nonsense”. This also extended to the writing, as she apparently sent the recipient an email that “made no sense.”
Vicki Gunvalson’s symptoms were concerning. Did she have a stroke?
Everyone can confuse a sentence, a paragraph, or more. Anyone may find themselves “briefly” lost in thought, only to realize that 15 minutes have passed. But these are no ordinary moments — they are red flags of a health emergency.
Vicki Gunvalson’s clients warned her she might have a stroke. Stroke can present with a variety of symptoms, and unintelligible speech may be the easiest to identify.
The hospital allegedly “misdiagnosed” her as having a sinus infection and sent her home. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of her horror story.
At home, Vicki Gunvalson’s boyfriend, Michael Smith, later found her in the family’s bathtub. (Thankfully, she and Steve Lodge have split for good.) Michael talked about this on the podcast.
“One of the scariest things for me was when I walked in and for some reason Vicky decided she wanted to take a shower,” he said.
“She was in the tub full of water and I walked in and she almost passed out,” Michael recalled.
What is the actual diagnosis?
Fourteen hours later, Michael sought medical help for his girlfriend. This time, doctors discovered the apparent real cause of her near-death experience.
“She had a severe infection… it was actually sepsis, but it was actually pneumonia,” Michael described in the podcast.
He added: “Their explanation is that when your body is fighting an infection this big and this dangerous, your whole body attacks it.”
“My right lung was so compressed by the garbage,” Vicki Gunvalson shared. She also admitted that despite being discharged from the hospital, she still had no energy.
Even though Vicki Gunvalson has been obsessed with crazy anti-vaccine conspiracy theories in the past, it’s nice to see her willing to get medical help when she needs it.
We hope she makes a full recovery soon. Vicki Gunvalson should be able to put this near-death experience behind her.
