'Selling Sunset's' Amanza Smith On Battling Near-Fatal Blood Infection (EXCLUSIV
'Selling Sunset's' Amanza Smith On Battling Near-Fatal Blood Infection (EXCLUSIV
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00:00 Take me back to the beginning.
00:01 What were some of the first signs
00:03 that something was even wrong?
00:05 - So I literally, I was hanging out with my best friend Mary
00:08 and went home, went to bed, woke up, and I couldn't walk.
00:13 Like I literally, it was like that.
00:15 I had no symptoms, there was no lead up.
00:18 I just had severe lower back pain
00:21 to the point that I couldn't put any pressure.
00:24 Like I couldn't step out of the bed.
00:26 So I went to Cedars-Sinai.
00:27 They did the MRI and they admitted me.
00:30 So I went and I never left for 31 days.
00:33 - The MRI revealed Amanza had osteomyelitis,
00:37 an infection that was caused by a bacteria in her blood
00:40 that spread to her spine,
00:42 eventually disintegrating the bones.
00:43 - This is my vertebrae.
00:45 When I first got the scan,
00:46 there was like probably this much gone.
00:49 - Oh my God.
00:49 - And after two weeks, it was all the way gone.
00:51 There was like one third of my vertebrae left.
00:54 - So this was rapidly becoming a bigger problem for you.
00:58 - It was literally eating my spine.
01:01 - Wow.
01:01 - And so we made the decision to do the surgery to replace.
01:05 They kept one third of my vertebrae,
01:06 the rest is titanium.
01:08 - Was there ever a point,
01:09 particularly that you may have been near death?
01:12 - Yeah, they told me that had I waited one or two more days
01:16 to go to the hospital, that I could be dead
01:18 because this infection, once it gets in your blood,
01:20 it can attack your heart.
01:22 It can attack your major organs.
01:24 - Good morning, everyone.
01:25 Amanda Smith here from her hospital bed.
01:29 - Fortunately, the doctors caught the infection in time
01:32 and Amanda documented the whole journey on social media.
01:35 Support came from fans, her two kids,
01:38 and new boyfriend, David.
01:40 - He just took care of me and it felt so good
01:42 to have somebody take care of me
01:43 'cause I take care of everything.
01:46 - Also by her side, her selling Sunset family.
01:49 - Everybody's been really supportive, to be honest.
01:52 And a lot of them got to meet David too
01:53 because they all, so he got the full-on family.
01:58 And everybody approves.
02:01 - You're in recovery now.
02:05 You say it's going pretty well, generally speaking,
02:07 ups and downs.
02:09 But overall, you feel?
02:12 - I feel pretty good.
02:13 The pain has severely decreased,
02:15 but I just can't do day-to-day things.
02:19 I can't bend over to tie my shoe.
02:20 I had to get a bench for the shower.
02:23 I have, you know, there's probably patches of my leg
02:26 that I haven't shaved for a while
02:28 because I can't get to them.
02:29 - But we can tell, your pants look fabulous.
02:31 - I've learned to camouflage things.
02:34 (upbeat music)
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