Matthew Perry Almost Died in 2018 From a Ruptured Colon

Matthew Perry’s death at the age of 54 feels tragically young. The Friends star rose to fame in the 1990s and has walked in and out of the spotlight more than a dozen times over the years. In 2018, he went dark for many months. Perry didn’t just take a break from Hollywood, though. He nearly died. Matthew Perry spent almost half a year inside a hospital room after his colon ruptured. This is what happened. 

Matthew Perry revealed that his colon ruptured in 2018 

In 2018, Matthew Perry found himself in a life-threatening situation. The actor’s colon had ruptured, and he was in very real danger of dying. In his book, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry explained that after years of using opioids, constipation led to his colon rupturing. While he was rushed into emergency surgery, the outlook appeared grim. In his memoir, he recalled his family being told he had just a 2% chance of making it out alive. 

The surgery was a success, but for five months, Perry lived in an LA hospital. He was in a coma for two weeks and was operated on more than a dozen times during that lengthy stay. When he went home, he was not free from medical hassles. Due to his surgeries, Perry had to rely on an ostomy bag.  

Matthew Perry once said his near-death experience helped keep him sober 

Perry was really honest about his drug use in his memoir, and he was equally candid about his attempts to get sober. During a press appearance ahead of his book’s release, Perry told People that he spent millions of dollars trying to get sober. He estimated he had laid out $9 million on rehabs and other substance abuse treatments. 

In fact, he was in a sober living environment when he found himself in the midst of a medical emergency. In his memoir, Perry alleged rehab staff attempted to prevent him from heading to a hospital. He claimed they believed he was acting ill to seek drugs. He was not acting. Recently, Perry said he needed only to look at his stomach to remember why he needed to choose sobriety. 

Perry appears to have been sober at the time of his death. While it will be some time before an official cause of death for the actor is released, sources tell TMZ that no drugs were found at the scene.