‘OutDaughtered’ Star Danielle Busby Fearful of Next Steps With Mystery Illness

OutDaughtered star Danielle Busby is still in search of answers when it comes to her mysterious health ailments. Danielle, 37, was hospitalized in November 2020, but she and her husband Adam Busby, 38, never shared her follow-up tests with fans. The mystery is now playing out on their TLC show, and Danielle discusses her fears in the upcoming Tuesday, April 20 episode.

In a preview clip shared with Us Weekly, Adam told the camera they learned “there could be something wrong with Danielle’s heart.” This was “like a gut punch,” she said, adding they were not prepared to hear that. The couple, who are parents to six daughters, then went to a follow-up appointment with Danielle’s daughter. “Hearing the fear in her voice… she normally doesn’t let that out,” Adam said in a confessional.

“It was a lot of information for me to take in and try to remember to share. I was completely shocked with the things that you were telling me,” Danielle told the specialists, who met with them via Zoom. The TLC star then admitted she was scared. Her doctor said he was worried Danielle had an atrial septal defect or a hole in her heart. He said the net step would be a transesophageal echo, where they use a probe in her throat to find “the root cause of your problem.”

Adam asked if Danielle would need surgery, but the doctor put the brakes on this. He told the couple to take things one at a time, noting that they would only consider “further intervention” if they find something wrong with Danielle’s heart. Danielle remained nervous and afraid about what will come next. She said the test “sounds miserable,” and it would be the “most invasive procedure” she has ever had.

However, she was more afraid of what the test might find. “I don’t want to have heart surgery,” she said in the post-appointment confessional. “All I keep thinking about is, you know, ‘What about my family?’ It’s scary.” Danielle and Adam are parents to 10-year-old Blayke Louise and -year-old quintuplets Ava Lane, Olivia Marie, Hazel Grace, Riley Paige, and Parker Kate.

In last week’s episode of OutDaughtered, Danielle further explained how she felt when she fell ill. “I knew it was serious because I’ve never felt this ever in my life. I didn’t know if I was having a heart attack,” she said in a confessional. “I literally felt like my arm was literally going to explode. That’s what it felt like inside.” Adam wanted her to go to the emergency room as soon as possible, but Danielle’s first thoughts went to her daughters, not herself.

The episode also showed how Danielle was struggling to figure out how to tell her daughters that something was wrong. “It crushes me to see my kids’ faces of concern because I don’t want them to worry about me. You know, you’re my little girls and I can’t tell them ‘everything’s fine,’ because it’s not,” Danielle said. Her daughters have motivated her to find out what is wrong because it will not affect herself and her whole family.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Danielle predicted she had an autoimmune disease. “I’m just kind of having to go through a lot of the same processes over again, restarting different routines of blood work and everything,” she said. The Busbys’ story continues on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on TLC. Past episodes are available to stream on Discovery+.