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The ladies atThe Viewstick together.
Speaking to PEOPLE atThe Hollywood Reporter‘s Most Powerful People in Media event in New York City on Thursday,Sunny Hostinopened up about moderatorWhoopi Goldberg, who was recentlyhospitalizedfor a 24-hour bug after suffering aserious bout of pneumonia and sepsisin February.
“Slow and steady,” Hostin said of how Goldberg is doing. “She admitted she had a setback last week, she was very sick and it’s sort of a cautionary tale — when you have someone like Whoopi Goldberg who runs on all cylinders all the time, sometimes you’ve got to take a step back. Self care is really important and it’s important for all of us — we really run on all cylinders, all of us.”
Goldberg, 63, revealed on Monday’s show that she had been hospitalized last week.
“I’m better. I’m much, much better,” she said. “I had a 24-hour bug, which landed me back in the hospital last week, which is why I missed y’all on Thursday.”
“The bug came and went. It’s gone,” she added. “I seem to be doing well. I’m here!”
“We kind of try to sneak in separately, because if you have all of us at the same time, then everyone knows that Whoopi Goldberg is in the hospital and we didn’t want that,” she said.
And Goldberg was in fine spirits, Hostin said.
“Oh, she was herself in the hospital — she was cracking jokes,” she said. “She was great.”
“She’s going to be on just a couple days a week until she’s really ready to be back on every day,” Hostin added. “We don’t know when that will be, but for right now she’s feeling better.”
Goldberg’s health was first addressed onThe Viewon Feb. 20, as fans questioned why she had been missing from the show since Feb. 6.
“She’s not feeling well,” Behar said during the broadcast. “She’s actually recovering from pneumonia. I saw her last night and she’s very funny still, and we had big laughs. She’s getting there, she’s on the mend.”
On the March 8 episode, Goldberg gave an update on her condition via video message, reassuring fans, “I’m not dead,” though she did admit that she “came very close to leaving the earth.”
“Thank you for all of your good wishes, all of the wonderful things that people have been saying,” Goldberg said. “Even people who aren’t huge fans of mine have actually been saying nice things about me.”
On March 14, Goldberg made a surprise appearance on the show, revealing that she first found out she had pneumonia when she went to the hospital with a 102-degree fever.
Goldberg also explained that while treating her double lung inflammation, she was diagnosed with sepsis — a frightening condition caused when the body has anextreme, over-active, life-threatening response to an infection. Sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitals, with at least 250,000 Americans dying every year from it in the United States alone (that’s more than breast cancer, AIDS and strokes combined).
Both conditions put Goldberg close to death, she said — though she kept her sense of humor, joking, “They had to pump a lot of stuff out.”
Still, Goldberg cautioned others to take care of themselves.
“This stuff, really for everybody, you think you can push through because you got a little cold. And you think because you healed quick that something crazy can’t happen? Well, it could,” she said. “This is a cautionary tale for all of us. You must really take care of yourself because there’s little tiny stuff out there that will kill you that you never think of.”
The Viewairs weekdays (11 a.m. ET) on ABC.
source: people.com
