Just over a week after "Dance Moms" star Abby Lee Miller was hospitalized for a thyroid condition, she was taken in for emergency surgery after her doctor revealed she was "going to die" without it.
Miller's surgeon, Dr. Hooman M. Melamed, said that the reality star returned to the hospital this week after she started experiencing "excruciating neck pain," according to People.
And her condition just got worse from there. He said:
"Over the next two days, her condition started deteriorating. Not just her pain, but her weakness started getting worse. In the span of 24 hours, which was something that I have not seen, her condition rapidly deteriorated. She was completely paralyzed from the neck down."
An MRI then determined that she had a spinal infection that had spread from the "bottom of her neck all the way to the lower part of her back."
Miller was then taken in for emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai Marina Del Rey Hospital in Los Angeles around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, Dr. Melamed said at a press conference:
"If we didn't do something, she was going to die. Her blood pressure was bottoming out. She was not doing well."
The doctor said Miller is now stable, but "not out of the woods yet." He said:
"We need more imaging to make sure the infection or whatever it was is out. I don't need to do anymore surgery in the short term, but she's definitely going to need more surgery "” we'll need to do rods and screws to stabilize her."
A rep for the doctor told E! News that the health issues weren't actually an infection and may be a result of Burkitt lymphoma, a form of cancer in the lymph nodes. Dr. Melamed said:
"It was not an infection, it was a type of a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma "“ it's a type of a cancer We're getting an oncologist involved and we have to figure out what the next steps are as far as chemotherapy or radiation or more spine surgery. Depending on the tumor type, depending on the sensitivity of the tumor "“ it just depends the type but I feel more than yes, she will undergo chemotherapy or radiation."
Tests are still pending, but if she does have lymphoma, there is a possibility that it spread. But her doctor said that Miller has a "good prognosis."
Miller hasn't spoken out publicly at this time.
She was recently transferred to a halfway house to finish out her 366 day sentence for bankruptcy fraud.