‘American Idol’ Singer Hospitalized for ‘Excruciating Pain’

American Idol Season 23 star Josh King is “on the mend” following his scary hospitalization this month.

While attending fellow Idol contestant Nina Daig’s songwriting retreat in Virginia earlier this month, the Top 8 finalist was rushed to the hospital with “excruciating pain,” he recounted in a Monday, June 9 Instagram post.

Opening up about the scary ordeal in the post, which included several photos from what he described as a “hell of a week,” King explained that the first day of the retreat “went great.” He said he “got to hang out with the gang,” referring to several of his fellow Idol stars, “and got a good night’s sleep.” The following day “was good too, hung out by the river, sang at the special Olympics with everyone, wrote some songs.” However, King said he “started to feel a bit iffy (if that’s a way to put it),” and he woke up the “next morning entirely unable to move.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Josh King (@officialjoshking)

“I was in such excruciating pain that I evacuated anything that remained in my stomach,” he recalled, explaining that Daig’s husband rushed him to the ER. King said he “spent the rest of the weekend hospitalized. My heart rate was a steady 125-130 bpm for most of Saturday (resting), and any ounce of movement hurt like hell.”

Although King, who returned to the American Idol stage in the Season 23 finale for a performance with Jessica Simpson, said he was “officially” diagnosed with SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome), an exaggerated defense response from your body to a harmful stressor, per the Cleveland Clinic, even his doctors were “were questioning that” diagnosis. He added that his doctors “said there was a ton of strain on my heart as a result and I had to be monitored for the next two nights. The cause was a combination of things, dehydration, fatigue, stress, heat exhaustion, etc.”

“So yeah. Pretty much missed the entire weekend of fun, lol,” he continued. “But I was released today and on the mend. If you are wondering why I haven’t posted much in the last few weeks. It’s because I have been severely unlucky regarding the state of my health.”

King concluded by sharing that his “Idol family was there for me once again when I needed them,” with one photo in the carousel showing fellow contestants Skylie Marie Thompson and Grayson Torrence visiting him in the hospital.