Chad Michael Murray on When He Almost Died: ‘They Had a Priest at My Bed’

Getty Chad Michael Murray in 2019.

Chad Michael Murray has had more than one close call in his life. A sneak attack left him with a nose job he never wanted, just three years after a serious illness in his teens almost killed him. The Hallmark actor revealed that his illness was so bad, a priest was brought to his bedside.

He Almost Died at 15

When he was only 15, Murray almost died because he was bleeding internally and his doctors almost missed it, People reported. Murray shared the harrowing story in 2019 while guest-starring on “The Jesse Cagle Show” on SiriusXM. He said the near-death experience led to his becoming an actor.

Murray told The Jesse Cagle Show: “I was 15, I was in the hospital. And the one thing that really saved me from that moment in life where I missed Christmas and I missed New Year’s was television and film. … These movies and television would be on and I would think, ‘I want to do that. I want to give people something to smile about. That’s what I want to do. I want to entertain. And so people can stop worrying about the mundane aspects of life. Or maybe you’re going through something tough, I want to pull you out of it for two hours. That’s why I became an actor…”

He said he was in the hospital at 15 because his intestines had twisted, “probably because of food,” he admitted.

He shared the full story of what happened and how scary it was.

My intestines twisted when I was 15 and they didn’t know what was wrong. I was playing football all the time so because of that — and this sounds so stupid — and trust me, this is not an ego trip when I say this — but because I was in physically good condition, my abdomen was tight and when I started bleeding internally, my stomach didn’t expand. Basically, my abs kept it flat.

And so the doctors couldn’t tell I was bleeding. They saw my blood was dropping, my red blood cells and white blood cells was dropping but they didn’t know where it was going.

And I almost died. I had 48 ounces in internal bleeding. They had a priest at the end of my bed. And I remember it was the only time I ever saw my dad cry — well, one of two times. He was at the end of my bed. I was kind of in-and-out of consciousness, and he was taking shots at the end of my bed, just praying.

And my nurse saved my life that night. … Her name was Sandy, and I’ll never forget her. We took her chocolates for years after until she moved hospitals. But she got four units of blood and saved my life that night, against the grain. She just did it. She locked the door, she gave me four units of blood, and saved my life.

About 3 Years Later, He Was Jumped at a Burger King

Murray didn’t have it easy growing up. He revealed to EW that when he was 18, just a few years after he almost died in the hospital, he was jumped by three guys at a Burger King.

“(I) had my nose put on the other side of my face,” he said. “It was three guys — what the hell was I supposed to do? The doctors didn’t even bother running X-rays. They just reset it. But it wasn’t a nose job — I hate the fact that people say it was a nose job!'”

He joked that because of this, he prefers McDonald’s.

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