Friends star Matthew Perry recently revealed that he almost died in 2018, after his colon burst due to an overuse of opioids. At the time, there were reports about Perry being hospitalised due to a gastrointestinal perforation. However, the reality of the situation was much more serious, as the actor had spent two weeks in coma, five months in the hospital and had to use a colostomy bag for nine months.
Perry told People, “The doctors told my family that I had a 2% chance to live. 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.”
Matthew Perry has always been open about his addictions struggles. During the 10-season run of Friends, he was taking 55 Vicodin a day, which led to a drastic drop in his weight.
“I didn’t know how to stop. If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older,” Perry said. He further said that his addictions to various pills resulted in 14 surgeries so far on his stomach, adding, “That’s a lot of reminders to stay sober. All I have to do is look down.”
Matthew Perry said that his therapist grilled it into him that he needs to be sober. “My therapist said, ‘The next time you think about taking Oxycontin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life,’” the actor said. “And a little window opened and I crawled through it and I no longer want Oxycontin anymore.”