‘The View’ Co-Host Whoopi Goldberg Almost Died When She Was Hospitalized for Pneumonia and Sepsis

During Monday’s episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg‘s doctors appeared to give an update on the beloved co-host’s health, weeks after she was admitted to the hospital for double pneumonia and sepsis. Her doctors said she almost died.

Goldberg’s pulmonologist, Martin Greenberg, said the 63-year-old was “in a bad way” when she became his patient.

“She had a chance of dying of 30 percent, one in three,” Greenberg said.

Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, Goldberg’s primary physician, said he had trouble understanding what Goldberg was saying during her health scare.

“She was gasping for air. She couldn’t breathe,” Rodriguez said, notes The Daily Mail. “Her teeth were chattering, she was obviously in what we call rigors.”

At one point, Rodriguez was so worried about Goldberg’s health that he tried to keep her talking on the phone.

“I was afraid she wasn’t going to wake up,” he said. “Because you don’t know if someone… when they give you those clues, is she really now just tired, or is she going to become unconscious and this is it? So I wanted her talking… that’s how serious it was.”

Greenberg said Goldberg was “in a bad way” when he first saw her, adding it was “all hands on deck” to treat her.

“She had high fever, she was short of breath, very rapid heart rate, and a low oxygen level – which is not a good sign,” he said.

Goldberg said there were too many people who do not take pneumonia seriously, especially those who think they can just “fight through” an illness.

“I get a cold and I just… I don’t take stuff. I just fight through it. And you can’t do that. It will kill you. Inactivity, not doing anything, not checking, will kill you. So get your ego together and say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to the doctor because I don’t feel good,’” the Oscar-winner said. “It’s okay to go to the doctor because you don’t feel good. Because you’d rather be alive b–ing about it than dead.”

Goldberg said she had to lighten her workload after she was treated because “you don’t want to relapse” or have to face this ordeal again.

“I didn’t like it,” she said. “This is what happens when you don’t take care of yourself.”

Goldberg mysteriously stopped appearing on The View in early February, leading fans to wonder about her health before her co-hosts finally told viewers she was being treated for pneumonia. On March 14, Goldberg shared a video announcing she was coming back soon.

“Hey, yes, it’s me. I am here. I am up and moving around — not as fast as I’d like to be. I am O.K. I’m not dead,” she said in the video. “I had pneumonia and I was septic. Pneumonia in both lungs, which meant there was fluid there was all kinds of stuff going on…I came very, very close to leaving the earth.”

In early April, Goldberg was back in the hospital, but this time only for a “24-hour bug.”

“I am here. I’m much better. I’m much, much better. I had a 24-hour bug, which landed me back in the hospital last week, which is why I missed y’all on Thursday,” Goldberg said, adding that the illness “came and went.”

Goldberg has been on The View since 2007 and shared the 2009 Outstanding Talk Show Host Emmy with her co-hosts.

Photo credit: ABC