‘American Pickers’ star Danielle Colby shares photo from hospital, details ‘health journey’ with fibroids
‘We were so close to losing each other’
Colby was diagnosed with a stage 3 fibroid on July 4, 2013.
“It became my worst nightmare,” she said in a statement at the time.
“(Doctors) told me that if I didn’t get it out right away they were going to cut both my ovaries.
“I spent 4 days in surgery, two nights under anesthesia, one night in the hospital, and was given six months [to live]. It was the best two months of my life.”
Colby recalled the procedure’s aftermath with her mom. Her father had to stay at home and not be on-set for the show.
“So I had to be by myself,” she recalled. “And if I was working, I was so exhausted that I literally would fall asleep.
“I would go home and cry myself to sleep because I was so scared that I was going to lose everything I loved.” She lost her first husband, then her show, her job and her future.
Now she is ready to fight back. The former model and photographer has filed a lawsuit claiming that her doctors at Baylor University Hospital were negligent in diagnosing her with fibroid growths.
“I would look at her, and I could look at myself and I would know we were so close to losing each other,” Colby said.
“And that’s when that fear of not being able to go on that became a greater fear of not being able to go on with our lives.”
The photos show Colby, right, visiting a patient at the hospital. In front of her, seated patient is wearing a T-shirt adorned with a “TMI” headline.
“I’ve never had a complaint like that,” Colby said. “That’s an opportunity to get better for the sake of the patient.”
The photos were revealed during a hearing in a complaint filed by Colby against medical staff at Baylor University Hospital. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Dallas.
Baylor will not comment about the allegations.
On Aug. 16, a judge ruled in favor of the hospital, ruling that the hospital had to turn over the photos, as well as other medical records showing that the patient had undergone a hysterectomy, a major operation that removes