‘Little People, Big World’: Zach Roloff ‘Almost Died’ During Health Scare Last Year

Zach Roloff is sharing the details of the time he “almost died” while being hospitalized in the ICU last year. The Little People, Big World star, 33, and his wife Tori Roloff, 32, shared the story of Zach’s emergency shunt revision on their Raising Heights podcast Thursday, revealing that the shunt placed in the TLC star’s brain to drain fluid into his stomach failed.

Zach revealed he had been experiencing symptoms like migraines on and off for a decade before he eventually went to the hospital. “It’s been a year since Zach almost died,” Tori revealed on the podcast. “I get woken up that morning at 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and this nurse goes, ‘Your husband’s getting moved to ICU.’ I fled in a panic to ICU. …And when I got to you, Zach was there yelling my name. And so I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, he’s dying – like this is it.’”

Tori revealed that when she got to her husband’s room, doctors were manually draining fluid from her husband’s brain. “You were still in so much pain,” Tori told Zach. “Your heart rate started dropping.” As Zach was rushed into exploratory surgery, there were “a lot of unknowns,” but doctors did ultimately determine they needed to replace Zach’s shunt. 

Zach had previously gone to have his migraines investigated by doctors, but scar tissue from previous shunt surgeries prevented them from seeing the issue when MRIs were done. “I really feel like with spinal stuff, fluids, shunts and of those issues, the brain, headache, the idea of a migraine… it’s hard to pinpoint sometimes,” Zach explained, adding that he feels confident about the outcome of his surgery. “We’re up on a year on that and I haven’t had a migraine since then,” he revealed.

Tori previously updated fans about Zach’s condition back in February 2023, sharing photos of Zach in the hospital covered in electrodes. “Not exactly how we saw our week going…” she wrote at the time. “Zachary had emergency shunt revision this morning. It’s been a scary 72 hours but he is doing well and recovering!! Thank you so much to everyone for the prayers that you have covered us in. We feel them! We are so incredibly blessed by our neurosurgeon team and their attentiveness to Zach’s needs!”