‘1000-Lb. Sisters’ Star Tammy Slaton Reflects on Near-Death Health Scare: ‘Completely Blacked Out’

Brianna Sainez
·2 min read
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1000 Lb. Sisters star Tammy Slaton reflected on the near-death health scare that had her rushed to the hospital and placed on life support.

“I don’t remember any of it, nothing. I completely blacked out,” the Kentucky native, 36, explained in a teaser clip shared by TLC on Monday, January 16. “I woke up a week later in the hospital, on life support. I don’t remember any of it.”

The upcoming season of 1000 Lb. Sisters, premiering on Tuesday, January 17 at 9 p.m. ET, is set to document the reality TV star as she received emergency medical attention after “[her] body shut down.”

“Two months ago, I decided to go back to rehab. I weighed the most I have ever weighed,” the reality TV personality shared after it was revealed she hit 717 pounds. “I was here maybe, less than thirty minutes and my oxygen level dropped.”

After being placed in a medically induced coma, the YouTube star could hear “voices” around her and she vaguely remembers holding the hands of her family, she recalled in the teaser clip.

As fans recall, Tammy has been wearing a nasal cannula — which is connected to an oxygen tank — since the end of season 2. Around the same time, she contracted COVID-19 and pneumonia, both of which landed her in the hospital.

“I’m doing great. I mean yes, I’m on oxygen,” the TLC alum gave fans an update during a November 2020 YouTube video. “That’s just to keep my lungs sturdy, strengthened — I won’t be on [oxygen] much longer. I was on 15 liters of oxygen and now I’m on three.”

Unfortunately, only a year later, Tammy was rushed to the hospital again in November 2021, this time for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Once at the hospital, Tammy was given a tracheotomy. The surgical procedure — which creates a hole in the throat to insert a breathing tube — was administered so she could be given emergency breathing support at any time.

​“I’m doing better day by day. I’m supposed to be getting out of the hospital in a couple of days,” she shared in a TikTok video at the time. “I’m going to another nursing rehab to get my strength back and lose more weight.”

Apart from Tammy’s medical emergency, season 4 of the series is also set to document her recent marriage to her new husband, Caleb Willingham, whom she met while in rehab. The pair tied the knot in November 2022 after reportedly getting engaged in October.