Matthew Perry is "grateful to be alive" after drug abuse nearly killed him four years ago.
The Friends star writes in a revealing new memoir that he almost died after his colon burst due to opioid abuse in 2018, People reports. Perry told the outlet he spent two weeks in a coma and five months in a hospital, and also had to use a colostomy bag for nine months.
"The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live," Perry told People. "I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that."
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Perry only said at the time that he suffered a gastrointestinal perforation. But the Chandler Bing actor has previously opened up about struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, and he told People that at one point during Friends' run, he was taking 55 Vicodin a day. "I didn't know how to stop," he said, also revealing he has been to rehab 15 times and has had 14 surgeries on his stomach.
But Perry, who is now sober and "pretty healthy," said he's an "extremely grateful guy" and is sharing his story in hopes it might help others struggling with addiction.
"There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived," Perry said. "So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason."
Perry added, "My hope is that people will relate to it, and know that this disease attacks everybody. It doesn't matter if you're successful or not successful, the disease doesn't care."
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