Kathy Griffin back home after stint in ER with abdominal infection, coronavirus concerns

Joey Nolfi
·3 min read

After Kathy Griffin was admitted to the hospital and placed in a coronavirus isolation ward — where she criticized President Donald Trump and claimed she couldn't secure a test for COVID-19 — the comedian has returned home to recover from an abdominal infection.

In an interview published Thursday, the 59-year-old's husband, Randy Bick, told the Los Angeles Times Griffin began experiencing stomach issues over the weekend, though they eventually subsided before returning in the form of violent vomiting, diarrhea, and intense pain.

“We were both nervous because we were still in the incubation period after returning from [a trip to] Mexico, but also we had not left the house in days,” Griffin told the publication, confirming that she had also been self-quarantining as a coronavirus precaution. “We’d been hearing about a 14-day incubation period [for the coronavirus]. So for me to get what felt like food poisoning after six days, I thought, OK, is this a coincidence or what?”

She was ultimately sent to a specific COVID-19-designated area of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's emergency room, where she received an x-ray that revealed she had clear lungs and the abdominal infection. Griffin said her doctor wanted to test for coronavirus, but she was allegedly told she didn't meet the CDC's requirements.

“The realization when they told me the guidelines was, ‘Wow ... I now know not to come back unless my lungs are full with what feels like pieces of shattered mirror, unless I can’t breathe and unless my fever is 103 ...,’” Griffin said. “They’re not making the rules at all. That’s a frightening feeling. I just think it’s so obvious that those tests have to be accessible to everybody.... A lot of people, when they hear the president saying everyone who needs a test should get one, then shouldn’t have to then go to a hospital where, frankly, they may be exposing themselves or exposing others."

Griffin previously documented her experience Wednesday afternoon on social media, posting photos of herself in a hospital bed with a mask over her face. She claimed to be suffering from "unbearably painful" symptoms before criticizing the president over his response to the outbreak — particularly his assertion that the country's COVID-19 testing outpaced that of foreign nations.

"I was sent to the #COVID19 isolation ward room in a major hospital ER from a separate urgent care facility," Griffin tweeted, further slamming Vice President Mike Pence's leadership of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "The hospital couldn’t test me for #coronavirus because of CDC (Pence task force) restrictions. #TESTTESTTEST"

According to the L.A. Times, around 26,400 tests have been conducted on California’s 40 million citizens, with an additional 78,000 tests already performed in New York.

Though Griffin was not diagnosed with the virus, celebrities like Tom Hanks, Idris Elba, Debi Mazar, Daniel Dae Kim, and Andy Cohen have all said they contracted COVID-19 during the ongoing outbreak.

Griffin's criticism of the president comes three years after she posed for a satirical photo holding a severed prosthetic head molded in Trump's likeness, which led to severe backlash and prompted a federal investigation.

The White House did not return EW's request for comment on Griffin's accusation against Trump.

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