'ON MY DEATHBED'

‘Freakier Friday’ Star Recalls Near-Death Experience: ‘My Intestines had Twisted’

Chad Michael Murray revealed that the experience played a pivotal role in launching his acting career.

Actor Chad Michael Murray has opened up about a terrifying health scare that nearly claimed his life as a teenager. “My intestines had twisted, and I was hospitalized for two and a half months. It was a lot,” the Freakier Friday star said on Friday’s episode of podcast Great Company. After undergoing surgery to fix the issue, the actor suffered internal bleeding, losing 50 percent of his blood. “I was on my deathbed,” he said. While he was “in and out of consciousness,” he had “visions” during the ordeal. “I just remember seeing my father, the weakest I’d ever seen him, and a priest at the end of my bed.” A blood transfusion had saved Murray’s life, but the One Tree Hill actor needed to undergo a second surgery to “clean everything up” after his organs “shut down” from blood coagulation. However, Murray said that the experience played a pivotal role in starting his acting career. During his health scare, he met a nurse named Alana who was also a model. She encouraged him to model, but when Murray told her he wanted to act instead, Alana reassured him that he could eventually transition to acting. “You can segue from modeling into acting. Look, when you get out, I’m hooking you up with a modeling company I know,” she told him. The 43-year-old said Alana kept her promise and he went on to star in hit shows like Gilmore Girls, Sullivan’s Crossing, and Dawson’s Creek.