While Alaskan Bush People matriarch Ami Brown was recovering from her near-deadly battle with cancer, her son Gabe was also fighting for his life.
The Discovery star, 28, revealed in an interview with Radar Online published Monday that he was diagnosed with streptococcal virus several months ago, and that the bacterial infection could have killed him if left untreated.
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“I was down for a while. It got pretty bad and I was bedridden for weeks,” Gabe told the publication at brother Noah’s Idaho wedding to wife Rhain on Aug. 15. “I could barely make it ten feet without having to lie back down and there was a point where I thought that I might be like that forever.”
During that time, Gabe lived away from the rest of his family, he said, so that his illness didn’t infect mom Ami, whose immune system was compromised by her cancer treatments. Now, he added, he’s feeling much better, but is ready to get back to the shape he was in prior to getting sick.
“Thank God that things heal and you get better,” Gabe said, adding that the family’s new homestead in the Washington wilderness has already begun to bolster his spirits. “I think I lost a lot of my physique, but I am sure that living on the new property will help me get a lot of that back. There is so much hard work to do on the property that it has helped me get strong again.”
The eighth season of Alaskan Bush People premiered Sunday, introducing fans to the Browns’ new homestead. Getting back into a more rural setting following their stay in Los Angeles while Ami underwent treatment for her cancer, was a breath of fresh air for the family, Gabe said in the brand new episode.
“It’s just this feeling, like we came from California and everything there was so not our lifestyle,” he explained. “That it really took a toll on everybody. It’s all that down, bummed out feeling just kind of flew away.”
Patriarch Billy also attributed Ami’s improving health on the change of location, saying she is “getting stronger every day.”
And while the family has to put in the work to build a new homestead from nothing after leaving their home in Alaska, they’re nothing if not up for a challenge.
“We’ve fought hard. We deserve to be here,” Billy said. “I think this is definitely the biggest adventure we’ve had.”
Alaskan Bush People airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery.
Photo credit: Discovery
