Selena Gomez and actress Francia Raísa sat down for an interview with “Today” in which they talked about the life-saving kidney transplant Selena received from Francia over the summer.
Selena says lupus made her gravely ill, causing her kidneys to shut down, and even had her dealing with arthritis. “My mentality was just to keep going,” Selena says. Selena was on the verge of having to go on dialysis and Francia, who was Selena’s roommate at the time, said she could tell things were really bad. After finally revealing to Raísa she needed a kidney transplant, and that the waiting list was between seven to ten years, Raísa knew what she had to do, noting, “it just vomited out of me. I was like, ‘Of course I'll get tested.'"
Francia turned out to be a match, which Selena says was “unbelievable” but even she didn’t realize all it would entail. Francia had to write out a will, just in case she didn’t survive the procedure, and the whole thing was pretty tough on her mom.
And things were even worse for Selena who suffered complications following the surgery when her new kidney started turning inside her body. “I was freaking out,” she said. “Apparently one of the arteries had flipped. I'm very thankful that there are people who know what to do in that situation."
But the new kidney literally saved Selena's life, and she says she instantly felt better after it. “As soon as I got the kidney transplant, my arthritis went away,” Gomez said. “My lupus —there’s about a three to five percent chance it'll ever come back. My blood pressure is better. My energy, my life has been better." She adds that she hopes their story, “inspires people to feel good. To know that there is really good people in the world.” Check out the interview.