Ernie Hudson Reveals the Terrifying Moment He 'Almost Died' After Cancer Treatment Complications (Exclusive)
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“It was a nightmare,” Hudson recalls of the incident more than a decade ago
Ernie Hudson recalls the “nightmare” he endured when he “almost died” from complications stemming from his cancer treatment years ago.
The Ghostbusters star, 78, who was successfully treated for prostate cancer in 1998, was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2011.
“I was in really pretty good shape, but I wanted to make sure that everything was great,” Hudson, who was preparing to play boxer Jack Johnson in a play he wrote, tells PEOPLE.
“I went in to get a series of checkups that it really wasn't time for, but it was a very physical play,” continues Hudson, who wanted to be in tip-top shape.
"And then they found in a colonoscopy, they found this little thing on my rectal area, and then they checked and it was malignant cancer,” he says.
Hudson scheduled surgery to have it removed, and his doctor told him, “‘Well, you may not have to have an ileostomy bag, but it's a possibility.’”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, ileostomy bags are used to collect fecal matter “when your colon or rectum can’t be used to eliminate digestive waste.”
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage
Linda Kingsberg and husband Ernie HudsonPost-surgery, the married father of four did indeed need to wear the bag. “I was also still working. So it was trying to cover that up, but I was in so much pain,” says the star of the new Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire movie.
He asked his doctor, “‘How long do I have to wear this thing? Because I'm working and it's really kind of awkward.’ He told me six weeks. Well, we should have waited three months. He took it off too soon.”
One morning when Hudson was scheduled to fly, “I just woke up and my stomach had just—it was like a rock. And my wife insisted, thank God, that I go to the hospital,” he says, referring to Linda Kingsberg.
“Poison was running into my system,” says Hudson, who adds that the doctor at the hospital told him “if it had been just a couple hours more of me getting there, I probably would've died.”
Hudson needed additional surgery and had to wear the ileostomy bag again. “Then finally it was healed,” he says.
Jaap Buitendijk/Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Annie Potts, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson in 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'Related: What Ernie Hudson Learned About Marriage After Arguing with His Wife Over Toilet Paper (Exclusive)
The actor is a big proponent of early detection and getting regular check-ups.
When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he said he’d just had a check-up a few months prior. But he was about to shoot the HBO drama Oz, “I had the physical that the studio sort of made you take,” says Hudson.
His PSA (prostate specific antigen) levels were high—an indication that something could be wrong. “When I came back to LA after shooting Oz, it was even higher,” he says.
“So we went in and we had a biopsy done, and then they found it. So I had to deal with it,” says Hudson, who treated it with radiation.
He credits routine screenings for saving his life. “All those things, had I not caught them and dealt with them,” says Hudson. “I know that I wouldn't be here.”
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